Battered Northeast Braces for Third Winter Storm in 10 Days

For the third time in 10 days, the Northeast is bracing for a battering winter storm.

A system causing severe weather Sunday along the Gulf Coast is expected to become a nor’easter and threaten the Northeastern U.S. on Monday night into Tuesday.

The storm’s exact path remains uncertain, but the system will bring precipitation and wind in what will be the third significant winter storm in the past 10 days. A winter storm watch is in effect for 8.5 million people in New England, including residents of Boston, Massachusetts, and Portland, Maine.

Last weekend, a powerful nor’easter morphed into a “bomb cyclone” and slammed much of the Northeast with heavy snow and rain, hurricane-force wind gusts, and significant coastal flooding. The storm left six people dead from falling trees, and about 900,000 people lost electrical power.

As residents were still digging out from that snow, another storm hit the Northeast late last week. An 88-year-old woman died Wednesday when a tree fell and struck her in Suffern, New York, police said.

This winter’s snowfall totals so far sit around the annual average at this point for the major Northeast hubs of Boston, New York and Philadelphia, according to the National Weather Service.