Fast-Moving New Year's Storm Dumps More Than a Foot of Snow on Michigan

DETROIT – A fast-moving New Year's Day storm dumped more than a foot of snow on southeastern Michigan, a record blast that made driving hazardous.

Authorities reported no deaths or serious injuries from the six-hour burst of snow that started around midnight, but said there were multiple spinouts and minor accidents.

The storm left 10 to 16 inches of snow across parts of Oakland, Lapeer and St. Clair counties north of Detroit, the National Weather Service said. The western St. Clair County community of Capac reported 16 inches.

"This storm most definitely packed quite a wallop," said weather service meteorologist David Shuler in Oakland County's White Lake Township. "This will be a memorable storm for the amount of snow it dumped in such a short amount of time."

He said it was the region's heaviest New Year's Day snowstorm on record and was unusual for its intensity. In the heart of the storm, snow fell at a rate of at least 2 inches an hour, with periods of 4 inches an hour.

Utility officials reported scattered power outages affecting more than 24,000 homes and businesses Tuesday.

The new snow was a windfall at the Mount Brighton Ski Resort, 40 miles northwest of Detroit, where 12 to 14 inches of snow fell Monday and Tuesday, general manager Joe Bruhn said.

"It's a magnificent day for skiing," he said by phone.

Farther east, the weather system spread snow across upstate New York and northern New England, where it was expected to last into Wednesday and drop as much as 18 inches of snow in parts of Maine and New Hampshire, with up to a foot in Vermont.

That followed a storm in the Northeast on Monday that made it the snowiest December in the region in decades. December's snowfall at Concord, N.H., totaled 44.5 inches, toppling a record of 43 inches that had stood since 1876. Burlington, Vt., got 45.7 inches, far above its 17.2-inch December average, and Portland, Maine, amassed 37.7 inches for its third-snowiest December on record.

New Hampshire has already spent $30 million on snow removal out of the $75 million budgeted for the entire winter, said highway department spokesman Bill Boynton.