NE - 2-3 ft of snow closes down roads, businesses, public transit, etc.
NW - 2-3 ft of snow has never in my memory closed down roads. Sometimes the Uni will close but the only time my schools shut down when I was a kid was one time when there was a water main break. Buses and trains run, they might be slower but they run.
I don't understand why there's such a difference.
?
Because in the heavily populated areas of the NW they seldom if ever have that much snow except in the high mountains. If Portland or Seattle had that much snow absolutely no one could go anywhere. There are few snow plows to move it. In metropolitan areas in the NE, New York, Boston etc. The roads are narrow and heavily traveled so snowplows take a long time to move the snow.
Footprintz
That's bull.
28 inches or more of snow in a short period will close down any place in the country.
Chicago couldn't cope with that any better than NYC. Traffic has to stay off the streets so the plows can try and keep up.
Land-shark
Snow from ocean moisture is much heavier and more difficult to cope with than very cold dry snow. You see the same thing in Europe... the drier the snow the less upheavals it causes.
Anonymous
The density of population is entirely different between those two far distant areas. Plus the weather in the NW is far more predictable.