Winter Storm — Western Essex, New York

2026-01-25 to 2026-01-26 · Western Essex, New York

Event narrative

Snowfall totals across the county were 12 to 18 inches, including; 18 inches in Wilmington, 17 inches in Elizabethtown, 16 inches in Keene Valley, 14 inches in Westport and Ticonderoga with 12 inches in Willsboro.

Wider weather episode

An elongated area of low pressure from the southern Mississippi River Valley to the Carolina coast with strong arctic high pressure north accounted for relatively rare accumulations of snow and ice from New Mexico to the Tennessee river valley on January 24th and 25th. The area of low pressure off the Carolina coast strengthened modestly and moved north along the east coast during January 25th and eventually out to sea southeast of Cape C but north of 40N/70W benchmark.

Snow overspread the region during the afternoon of January 25th with the heaviest during the evening into early morning hours of January 26th with a temporary lull until mid to late morning of January 26th when additional accumulations occurred, especially across northern NY and northern VT.

Snowfall totals were 8 to 10 inches along the international border with Canada with 10 to 18 inches elsewhere across the region. The snow character was light and fluffy (low water content) so there were no weighted tree limbs causing power outages, but there were typical numerous vehicle accidents across the region.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1301581. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.