Boston, Massachusetts – More than 600,000 customers lost power and parts of the Northeast picked up nearly 38 inches of snow during a powerful late-month winter storm that defined February across the Eastern United States.
According to the National Weather Service Eastern Region, February 2026 ended drier than normal in many areas despite two high-impact systems that brought damaging wind, coastal flooding and record snowfall from North Carolina to Maine.
Early in the month, a coastal storm lashed the Outer Banks with a 53 mph gust at Cape Hatteras while Wilmington, North Carolina, recorded 6 inches of snow on the ground. Four homes collapsed into the ocean in Buxton as tidal flooding and erosion intensified along the coast.
A Feb. 7 cold front then drove wind gusts to 88 mph at Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina, and 66 mph at Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania. Localized snow bands dropped up to 12 inches in parts of coastal Massachusetts.
The most intense system struck Feb. 21-23, producing an 84 mph gust at Montauk Point, New York, and 83 mph at Nantucket, Massachusetts. T.F. Green Airport in Rhode Island measured a preliminary 37.9 inches of snow, with 2 feet or more across parts of Long Island. Wallops Island, Virginia, recorded 11.2 inches in its second-largest snowstorm on record.
Temperatures also swung to extremes. Watertown, New York, plunged to minus 36 degrees, its coldest reading in nearly a decade, while Columbia, South Carolina, surged to 84 degrees later in the month.
Warnings and climate summaries continue to be reviewed, and additional reports could refine snowfall and wind records in the coming weeks.
