A major spring storm brought heavy snow, rain and high winds to the Northeast, downing trees and power lines and leaving nearly 700,000 homes and businesses without power at one point. A woman was killed by a falling tree in a New York City suburb and a second woman died in a New Hampshire fire caused by the weather.

Two feet of snow was expected in parts of northern New England by Thursday evening, with wind gusts of 50 to 60 mph in coastal areas and inland, according to the National Weather Service. Moderate to heavy snow was forecast to continue in the evening and into Friday in areas of higher terrain.

Maine and New Hampshire bore the brunt of the power outages, with about 310,000 and 125,000, respectively, as of Thursday night, according to poweroutage.us. Local officials said the heavy, wet snow was to blame for bringing down trees and power lines.

Residents living in areas where power outages are continuing were asked to check on neighbors, said Robert Buxton, New Hampshire Homeland Security and Emergency Management director.

“This was pretty much a classic nor’easter,” said Stephen Baron, a meteorologist for the weather service in Gray, Maine. “This is definitely a high-end storm for April. It’s not crazy for us to get snow in April, but not usually getting double-digit amounts.”

The weather service said it was the biggest April nor’easter to hit the region since 2020.

“Still reporting snow and wind here at the office, with 17.4 inches of snow for the event thus far here in Gray,” the service posted in the evening on X.