'Course, one positive side-effect of the snow might be that the politicians won;t be able to get to work for a few days....that region shuts down even when it only snows an inch....

30 inches!  Man, I'd rather deal with the ice and occasional power outages.  30 inches of snow would keep me cooped up way too long with my family... 

Fuzzy correctly characterized east coast snow patterns.  These monster coastal storms occur when the two jet streams active in the winter phase over the east coast, normally the combination of a system that swings through the Ohio Valley and another that comes up from the Gulf.  This results in a coastal storm that bombs (an actual Meteorological term by the way, defined as a storm that decreases in pressure by at least 1 mb/hr over 24 hours) over the warm Gulf Stream waters off the east coast.  This provides the storm with abundant moisture, which is drawn in off the ocean and then deposited on the colder land as snow.  Hence the ridiculous snowfall amounts you can sometimes get.  When you get a classic set up that includes a cold High pressure center in New England funneling cold air down the coast to ensure it doesn;t get too warm from the warm air being drawn in from the ocean, you get a nice storm.

And sore muscles from shoveling....

Someday I'm sure I'll get a snowblower, but right now I can;t justify the cost.  We only have 1 snow event every few years where I could really use one, and in those cases all my surrounding neighbors who all have snowblowers usually offer up theirs to me.  Probably what will happen tomorrow.....