The nor'easter formed as a weak frontal system at 18:00 UTC on April 14 over western North Carolina, along an already existing series of fronts stretching down the U.S. East Coast.

[14] The low-pressure then steadily strengthened as it moved northeastward up the coast, with its minimum central pressure dropping below 1,000 millibars (30 inHg) at 00:00 UTC on April 16.

[16] Strong mesoscale banding developed in central and eastern Massachusetts, resulting in much higher snowfall totals than initially forecasted in those areas.

[22][23] The weakening nor'easter then slowly meandered east of Nova Scotia, moving to the northeast and making landfall along the southern coast of Newfoundland at 00:00 UTC on April 20, with a central pressure of 998 millibars (29.5 inHg).

[25] Early on April 14, Winter Storm Watches were issued in the higher elevations of interior New England,[26] and expanded to include more areas later that day.

[6][38] The Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York changed over to snow briefly on the back edge of the storm, and up to 6 inches (15 cm) accumulated on the highest peaks.

The Vermont Agency of Transportation warned of poor road conditions due to heavy wet snow, and closed VT 108 in Stowe prior to the storm to reduce work for snowplow operators.

[42] The Blue Hill Observatory in Milton picked up 3.6 inches (9.1 cm) of snow, making it the sixth-largest April snowstorm on record for the city.

[6] High snowfall rates and snow-covered roads in central and eastern Massachusetts led MassDOT to deploy over 240 additional snowplows at 10 a.m. EDT on April 16.