Snow in October

(CNN) — Mother Nature had a little trick for the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast on the Halloween weekend, as moderate to heavy snow and rain today knocked out power to hundreds of thousands and caused major headaches for air travelers.
All domestic flights out of New Jersey’s Newark International Airport were canceled around 4 p.m. according to an announcement made at the airport. Often frustrated passengers filled an array of long lines, trying to change their tickets in light of the storm.
Another airport in the Garden State, Teterboro, closed just after 2 p.m. though it was expected to reopen later Saturday, the Federal Aviation Administration reported on its website. The FAA also reported major delays at New York’s two airports — 5 hours and 16 minutes at John F. Kennedy and just 11 minutes better at LaGuardia.
The early season snowstorm was the result of unseasonably cold air mixing with a storm system on the East Coast.
While snow is nothing new to the region, the timing made it unique and caught some off-guard. New York’s Central Park, for instance, had 1.3 inches of snow as of 2 p.m., according to the National Weather Service, the most ever for this date since record-keeping began in 1869.
“We’re used to a lot of snow here, but not this early,” CNN iReporter Michael Majosky said.
Winter storm warnings were in effect today for a swath from northern Virginia to eastern Maine. Along with heavy snow, high winds gusting up to 50 mph were possible.