Behind-the-scenes peek at AccuWeather's snowstorm coverage

The first major snowstorm in years for parts of the Northeast arrived with astonishing snow totals and a whirlwind of news stories. Underneath all of that snow, sometimes literally, were dozens of AccuWeather reporters, meteorologists, journalists and broadcasters who kept the millions of impacted residents up-to-date forecasts from both in the field and from the studio.

In such a wide-ranging storm, spreading from the Ohio Valley to New England, every region has its own story to tell. The snowfall marked the heaviest winter storm seen in years for cities like New York City, and it shattered single-storm records in many other spots.

Regardless of the location, AccuWeather had the stories to share and the storytellers to share them. Here are some of the perspectives and stories from those reporters behind the scenes.

AccuWeather National Reporter Dexter Henry reported live from Poughkeepsie, New York, as the heavy snow fell.

At AccuWeather headquarters in State College, Pennsylvania, expert meteorologists worked around the clock to make constant tweaks and adjustments regarding where, when and with what intensity the storm would strike.

Brittany Boyer, AccuWeather On-Air Meteorologist: There were so many components to this storm from the ice to the rain, sleet and snow that it was important to get as much information in each and every broadcast.

Danielle Knittle, AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist: I recall telling a newspaper in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, during a reporter request about 7-10 days out to keep an eye out on Wednesday and Thursday as their next potential snow for the Lancaster area was this storm, which panned out.

Bill Wadell, AccuWeather National Reporter: The AccuWeather MinuteCast was on the money with timing out the snow starting to reach the ground when the nor'easter arrived in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Dan DePodwin, Manager of AccuWeather Forecasting Operations: There were significantly increasing snow totals from northern Pennsylvania through New York into central New England. This was due to a narrow band of extremely heavy snow that stayed nearly stationary for more than six hours.

Boyer: Along with the wide varieties of precipitation there were many big cities in line for this storm. With all that being said, I think our team of meteorologists did a phenomenal job with forecasting this storm.

Trisha Gates reporting on the whiteout conditions that complicated travel during the storm.

DePodwin: Major weather events always throw you a curveball no matter how closely you have studied them and scrutinized the forecast. In this case, the real surprise was the decent swath that received over 36 inches of snow with an event that lasted 12-18 hours in most places. The only way you can see totals of 3-plus feet in an event that is less than 18 hours is to experience snowfall rates that consistently exceed 3 inches per hour. In the Binghamton area, there were six straight hours of these crazy snowfall rates, leading to 41 inches of snow!

Boyer: Our meteorologists rolled out the first snowfall accumulation map on Saturday, which gave people many days of notice that a high impact storm would be approaching Wednesday through Thursday.

Knittle: Overall, we did a great job with our forecasts outside of a narrow, very intense band of snow that developed over north-central Pennsylvania and into southern New York that was responsible for the 40 inches of snow that fell around the Binghamton, New York, area. Those mesoscale, or really small scale, events are more difficult to identify prior to the start of a storm.

Both in the field and at headquarters, the changes in the predicted snow totals and the snow itself kept field reporters and meteorologists alike on their toes. On top of all that, COVID-19 didn't make any of those changes easier.

AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell

Wadell: Finding the best locations to safely report on a winter storm is always the biggest challenge. When roads are snow-covered and slick, safety is key, and we do our best to stay parked during the worst of the storm. Finding people to interview and share their experiences can also be a challenge in the era of COVID-19. There are less people out and about, and we wear our face coverings and use a "safety stick" to hold our microphone at a distance.

Trisha Gates, AccuWeather Network Field Coverage Supervisor: Working solo as we have to do sometimes is a big challenge in winter storms. Safety is always a key factor, you must be aware of your surroundings and the elements before you even think of shooting video.

DePodwin: While I thought we did an outstanding job providing advanced notice (almost a week!) and being nearly perfect with snow accumulation forecasts in many big cities (New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.), we could have done better examining the north and west side of the storm and raising our forecast totals in places along the New York/Pennsylvania border.

Knittle: One of the challenges was keeping up with how mixing was going to potentially hold down snow totals and with the lighter intensity of precipitation, how far north did mixed precipitation of rain, sleet and snow get vs. being just pure snow over eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and even around New York City.

Wadell: With more than 3 feet of snow in the forecast, we rented the largest SUV we could find. Four-wheel drive and a high clearance are crucial for covering a snowstorm. Heated seats and steering wheels are a huge bonus.

Knittle: With the limited time on-air, trying to get this point across in lives and taped feeds was very difficult with covering the locally heavy snow, strong winds, and coastal flooding that were more of a given, so a quick mention of mixing reaching the city was about all you can do for New York City.

Wadell: The biggest challenge was trudging through 3-foot-plus snow drifts in Binghamton, New York, to speak with people who were snowed in and trying to shovel their way out to the streets. As a 6'3" reporter, I didn't have too much trouble. My 5'4" photographer Stephanie wasn't as lucky. More on this later.

Gates: Proper clothing was my first, once you're wet in a snowstorm, it's over. Heat for the feet, that's another plus. The heating pads you can purchase are a life saver from frozen feet as there are times we are in knee-deep snow or snow over our feet.

Gates: Hydrate, even though its winter and cold, I bring plenty of fluids. It's shocking how much of a work out carrying your equipment over mounds of snow or pushing through knee-deep can be.

The most hectic hurricane season on record didn't leave much of a buffer ahead of last week's wintry blast.

Knittle: There was definitely more of a feeling of exhaustion after this storm came and went after not having a lot of time in between hurricane season and winter storms, along with having dealt with snow already a couple of times through the Midwest and Great Lakes.

Boyer: It felt like we flipped the switch from hurricane season right into the heart of the winter season. While we have already covered a number of snow-producing storms across the country recently, this was a big one. It was a storm that had a lot of elements to it, but our meteorologists did a great job working as a team to cover it.

DePodwin: In the midst of challenging global circumstances, our forecasting team has done a tremendous job providing excellent service to our customers through a record-breaking hurricane season and now an early start to the winter. This storm was also the first snowstorm in nearly two years for many of these areas. I think this fact makes our work here that more special. I could not be more proud of the entire team.

Outside of the office and away from the cameras, the AccuWeather experts had their own encounters with the snow to deal with. Even after the cameras turned off and the storm system tapered, AccuWeather team members had their own lingering memories.

Boyer: I'm definitely going to remember the amount of snow this storm produced! Some places saw snowfall rates of 2-4 inches per hour for multiple hours, which helped produce snowfall amounts above 3 feet. It wasn't just one or two places that saw more than 40 inches of snow, but parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont and New Hampshire all had locations with 40 inches plus.

Renee Duff, AccuWeather Meteorologist: I was off for most of the storm, but when I did work it was while the storm was ongoing on Wednesday night. So, one thing I'll remember most about the storm was the impressive band that was stationary over the Binghamton, New York, area on Wednesday night, producing 5-inch per hr snowfall rates for several consecutive hours. That is something you rarely see outside of intense lake-effect snow bands, so for that to occur during this storm and for such a long time was pretty remarkable!

Knittle: This storm will be memorable for me as it left behind the most snow I have seen from one storm in about 10 years here in State College. I was a student at Penn State the last time we had snow totals over a foot, and I have been here at AccuWeather for 10-and-a-half years now.

Duff: I'll also remember this storm for being the biggest one I've experienced since moving to State College five years ago ... I recorded 14 inches outside of my apartment.

Boyer: The one thing that also stands out is that it isn't even officially winter yet. It isn't unheard of to have a storm like this, but in most cases you would expect to see it a little deeper into the winter season.

DePodwin: Many major East Coast snowstorms are caused by a very strong low pressure area that is rapidly deepening (think of a process called "bombogenesis" or a storm that meteorologists refer to as a bomb cyclone). This rapid strengthening drives the heavy snow. This storm, though, was totally different. The low pressure area was relatively weak and the heavy snow was driven by other atmospheric processes that led to snow rates over 3 inches an hour for many hours in some spots! Truly impressive.

Boyer: This storm also brought an end to the snow drought during the 2019-2020 season. Some cities in the Northeast had little to no snow last year. Philadelphia for example had less than a half of an inch of snow during the 2019-2020 season. This storm brought the city 6.6 inches.

A global pandemic and multiple feet of snow couldn't stop residents from loving and caring for their neighbors.

Gates: The most compelling [part] was how so many people came to the aid of the elderly, those who can't manage this type of snowfall. [Despite] this year challenging everyone to stay at home and [practice] social distancing, I saw so many safely helping out others in a time of need.

Wadell: It's always interesting and bizarre how we find some of the best stories. After seeing the reports of jackpot snow measurements in southwest Binghamton, New York, we knew that we had to check it out. We ended up on a hilly residential road off the beaten path -- and found a spot near an intersection that was just big enough to get our SUV out of the way. Street parking was non-existent and most driveways were still buried. While I was in the SUV editing videos and sending reports back to AccuWeather HQ, our photographer Stephanie took a walk around the block.

She found a lovely woman named Patti who was completely snowed in. This snowbird is about to become a grandmother and returned to her home in Binghamton to self-quarantine and get ready for the big arrival. Her husband is still in Florida, and Patti doesn't know how to work their snow blower. Stephanie came back to the SUV after a nice chat shouting from a distance and told me that we had to talk with her.

After finishing up work to transmit videos back to HQ, we got our gear and started to make the trek through 3 feet of snow blanketing Patti's driveway to reach her. We were almost close enough to interview her with our social distance microphone stick, but the snowdrift was too much for Stephanie. She was recording me struggling to get through the snow, and ended up capturing the moment where the snow sank beneath her and she fell right into the drift. Luckily the camera was fine and we all had a good laugh.

Patti snapped some photos from her phone as we tried to make it over. She was so kind and wonderful, telling us about her adventure trying to shovel her way out alone and what she thought of this wild nor'easter. I knew we had to help her and I promised Patti that we'd be back after our next live shot right around the corner to help her shovel out. Luckily her neighbor Carl was around the corner with his snow blower and came down the hill to help her finish the job. He had no idea that she had returned from Florida. We were able to grab a quick interview with Carl. For them, this was no big deal. Just neighbors helping neighbors.

For us, it was a beautiful moment of kindness and generosity that reminded us just how wonderful it is to have neighbors who care. It's important to share snow total forecasts and life-saving information, but these are the stories that keep us going through the snow and cold. Sharing stories and glimmers of kindness in this cold and crazy world.

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