A near historic snowstorm in the northeast is a BIG storm. When we lived in New York and Connecticut, we saw lots of big storms, but I don't remember many of them being called historic.
Well, it may not end up being historic in the end, but all the ingredients are there. Most of the big name storms of the past originated in the Gulf of Mexico and repidly deepened as they headed up the coastline. It now appears as if this one will do just that. The main question here is how long it snows, but when it does... it will be 3-4"/hour at times.
I lived 50 years on the Long Island Sound coast.
There were many memorable and historic storms in those years.
The "Ella Grasso" storm of February, 1978 dropped 2 to 4 feet of snow in central Connecticut which shut down all travel in the state.
The Holloween 1991 storm better remembered as the "Perfect Storm" brought big tides but less wind.
December 11, 1992 was perhaps the biggest non hurricane flood tide in the Sound in 50 years.
And the March blizzard of 1993 was the greatest snow storm ever on the east coast, coating heavy snow from Georgia to Canada, burying western North Carolina in 5 feet of the white stuff.