WAKEFIELD — Yesterday residents dug out from under nearly two feet of snow dropped on the town during Saturday’s blizzard.

According to DPW Director Joseph Conway, this was the most significant one-day winter nor’easter a lot of his people have dealt with. “We have a relatively green staff compared to other places, so this was the biggest storm a lot of us have seen.”

The cold temperatures combined with strong wind challenged the local snow removers. Visibility at times was close to zero and Conway reported that windshield wipers and wiper motors “took a beating” as crews worked all day Saturday and much of Sunday. The operation included 35 town 28 contracted pieces of equipment.

Overall, Wakefield fared much better than other Massachusetts communities. There was no major loss of power and people for the most part stayed off roads so the DPW and its plow contractors could do their job.

Twenty three inches of snow were measured at the DPW’s North Avenue facility, and wind gusts peaked at 48 miles an hour.

“It was a slow process,” Conway said of the clearing snow off roads and streets. “But I think we left the town in pretty good shape.

Forecasters called this storm correctly and gave everyone plenty of notice. Even still, 15 vehicles were towed beginning early Saturday morning because they were in violation of the town parking ban. Other news from the storm include firefighters assisting a motorist who skidded off Route 128 near the Montrose exit around 2:30 Saturday afternoon, a private plow operator striking a car in the CVS parking lot around 6:30 p.m. and a motor vehicle accident yesterday around 3:30 p.m. involving one car rear-ending another on Farm Street at the Water Street intersection.

The sun shone down on much of the region Sunday, a day after the vicious nor’easter left more than 100,000 customers without power for a stretch that could last into Monday.

Winds that had gusted to more than 80 mph on Saturday died down on Sunday, and temperatures climbed into the upper teens and 20s as people emerged from their homes to dig out.

The storm dumped snow from Virginia to Maine, but Massachusetts bore the brunt of the fury, with the neighboring towns of Sharon and Stoughton getting more than 30 inches (76 centimeters) of snow.

More than 100,000 lost power at the height of the storm, mostly in Massachusetts. That had dropped to about 35,000 by Sunday afternoon, mostly on hard-hit Cape Cod. No other states reported widespread outages.

Utility Eversource said Sunday it had 1,700 crews working to restore electricity in Massachusetts, and customers will have their power back on “by the end of the day Monday, with most before then.”

Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito said at a news conference that officials were not aware of any storm-related fatalities in the state.

In and around New York City, snow totals ranged from a few inches north and west of the city to more than 2 feet in Islip on Long Island, according to the National Weather Service. Warren, Rhode Island got more than 2 feet, and Norwich, Connecticut finished with 22 inches. Some areas of Maine and New Hampshire also received more than a foot.

Winds gusted as high as 83 mph on Cape Cod. Coastal towns flooded, with wind and waves battering Weymouth, south of Boston, flooding streets with a slurry of frigid water, according to video posted on social media. Other videos showed a street underwater on Nantucket and waves crashing against the windows of a building in Plymouth.

Forecasters watched closely for new snowfall records, especially in Boston. The Boston area’s modern snowfall record for a winter storm is 27.6 inches, set in 2003.

The city tied its record for biggest single-day snowfall on Saturday, with 23.6 inches, the National Weather Service said.

Like most major winter storms in New England, it drew comparisons to the infamous Blizzard of ‘78, which paralyzed the region for days.

“I was around for the Blizzard of ‘78, and this one was worse. The wind was tremendous,” Joe Brescia, 72, said Sunday, tears streaming down his face from the bitter cold as he shoveled his sidewalk in Warwick, Rhode Island.

Bao Ha, 26, got a shock when he went outside Sunday morning.

“It’s funny, it didn’t look so bad when I looked out the window this morning,” he said as he shoveled the sidewalk in front of his home in Waltham, which according to the National Weather Service, got 16 inches of snow. “But it’s light, so it’s easy to shovel.”

Climate change, particularly the warming ocean, probably influenced the strength of the storm, atmospheric researchers said.

Much warmer ocean waters “are certainly playing a role in the strengthening of the storm system and increased moisture available for the storm,” said University of Oklahoma meteorology professor Jason Furtado. “But it isn’t the only thing.”

The storm had two saving graces: Dry snow less capable of snapping trees and tearing down power lines, and its timing on a weekend, when schools were closed and few people were commuting.

However, some school districts announced that classes were canceled Monday to allow for snow removal, including Attleboro and Quincy schools in Massachusetts.

The National Weather Service considers a storm a blizzard if it has snowfall or blowing snow, as well as winds of at least 35 mph (56 kph) that reduce visibility to a quarter-mile or less for at least three hours. In many areas, Saturday’s storm met those criteria.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.