File:Cloud streets and snow along the eastern seaboard (MODIS 2017-01-12).jpg

English: A strong winter storm brought snow, ice, and frigid temperatures to much of the United States from January 4-8, 2017.

The mountainous region of the western U.S. received the first impact, piling up as deep as 56 inches (142 cm) in Boreal and Soda Springs ski resorts in California, and an estimated 42.5 inches (108 cm) in Colorado. By January 7-8, the northeastern United States was feeling the back-end of the storm. The Weather Channel reported blizzard conditions in parts of Eastern Virginia, while Delaware and eastern Maryland accumulated an unusually heavy 13.5 inches (34 cm) in Ocean View, DE and 12 inches (30.5 cm) in Ocean Pines, MD. The heaviest snow totals were in coastal Massachusetts, where the snowfall lingered the longest – through the early morning of January 8.

With the storm and snow came gusts of frigid air blowing off the eastern coast and over the relatively warm Atlantic Ocean. This combination of cold, dry air and warmer, moist air is a perfect set-up for the formation of dramatic rows of “cloud streets” - a pattern in which parallel lines of cloud align with the wind direction.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite captured this true-color image of cloud streets off the snowy East Coast of the United States on January 8. The solid band of cloud farther off the coast is likely a snowband of the retreating winter storm.