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Freezing rain and ice coat trees in Kingston, part of a massive winter storm moving across the U.S.

The state Department of Transportation said travel will be dangerous Friday morning after heavy sleet and freezing rain coated roadways overnight. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

ALBANY — Once again, a winter storm failed to drop a significant amount of powder on a snow-deprived capital city.

But what was left behind here by a storm that tormented the nation might have been worse.

A profuse amount of sleet piled up overnight, leaving Albany and the communities that surround it searching for ways to clear away a densely packed and unpalatable layer cake that also had freezing rain and snow among its ingredients.

Anyone who tried to clear sidewalks and driveways with a snowblower quickly discovered the crud was too low to be easily scraped up and shot off by the machine's blade. This was work for heavy shovels, and hard work indeed.

“It’s ridiculous! I’m not happy with this weather, and I'd rather be home on the couch” said Elena Spitaly jokingly as she scraped the ice and snow off the staircase in front of her building.

After a half hour of shoveling the stairs, she had only cleared two of them, and with five left, she knew it would take her a long time to finish the job alone. The stairs were not even the half of it: She also had to shovel the entire section of sidewalk outside of her property.

As the owner, Spitaly has shoveled the snow off her property every snowfall for the past 10 years to ensure the safety of her eight tenants.

“I have to do this, they can’t walk through safely. I can’t leave it like that,” she said. 

The Capital Region received a "very heavy" amount of sleet overnight, leaving residents with more difficulty clearing paths and vehicles than after many storms. The wintry mix continued all day into the evening. Still, experts said the precipitation would do little to bring Albany near its normal snow totals. In an average winter, 33.2 inches of the white stuff would have fallen by now but as of Thursday night only 14.1 inches had been measured.

“Most areas in the Capital Region have seen 1 to 2 inches of sleet,” said Brian Furgis, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Albany, earlier in the day.  A winter storm warning remained in effect until 8 p.m. Friday.

Total precipitation amounts around Albany -- which include sleet, ice and snow -- ranged from 2.4 inches at the Albany International airport to 4.4 inches in Schenectady, according to National Weather Service Meteorologist Michael Evans. Saratoga Springs and Clifton Park each received 3.5 inches.

The bright spot for Albany is that the sleet caused few power outages. Other areas did not escape the fickle precipitation. Freezing rain fell in the slightly warmer mid-Hudson Valley as well as the Catskill and Taconic mountains, bringing down tree limbs and power lines.

National Grid and New York State Electric & Gas reported small outages in parts of Washington, Albany, Rensselaer, Columbia and Dutchess counties.

But nearly 45,000 customers of Central Hudson were without power Friday in an area that stretched from Woodstock to Newburgh. More than 7,000 customers of New York  State Electric and Gas in northern Columbia County and southern Rensselaer counties were without power too. 

By 7:30 Friday night, most customers in Columbia County had their power restored, with about 2,700 customers remaining off line.

The outages in Ulster County persisted, with about a quarter of the population still without power.

Ulster County declared a state of emergency just after 4 p.m. Friday. Dry ice and water is being handed out in the parking lot of the Hudson Valley Mall, according to the Sheriff's Office, and warming centers were opened at fire departments in Olivebridge, Shokan, West Shokan, Samsonville and Boiceville.

The storm moved in Thursday night and by Friday morning, state transportation officials were urging drivers to stay off roads to avoid the hazards of driving on roads and highways clogged with a pile up of sleet that the National Weather Service in Albany dubbed "prolific."

The massive winter storm that stretched across a broad expanse of the U.S. spent Thursday night dropping heavy amounts of sleet, freezing rain and some snow on an area roughly between the Capital Region and Poughkeepsie in the Hudson Valley. Communities in the Adirondack Mountains received several inches of snow, each one welcome in an area that relies on winter activities like snowmobiling and skiing to make money. 

Most schools and day care centers were closed by the storm. Nearly all flights out of Albany International Airport were canceled and a number of arrivals were scrapped too.

"The sleet in the Capital Region has been prolific! We continue to see an icy mix of sleet, freezing rain, and/or snow between roughly I-90 and Poughkeepsie," the weather service tweeted Friday morning.

By early morning, the weather service said 0.20 of an inch of ice was measured at its Albany office.

The state Department of Transportation warned travel could be dangerous, telling drivers "if you must go out please proceed with caution, give yourself lots of time and take it slow."

In the Capital Region, the sleet and freezing rain turned to snow as temperatures dropped on Friday. 

Track local snow predictions: Snow forecast for the Capital Region

What about the kids? Check for schools closings and delays

Winter storm watches, advisories and warnings: What do they mean?

Power out? Track power outages with live maps

Snow fell in the Adirondack Mountains and meteorologists predicted that bands of snow stretching from that area to Maine could bring snowfall at a rate of an inch an hour Friday morning.

By Friday evening, a foot of precipitation had fallen in Corinth, 13 inches had fallen in Indian Lake and 15.2 inches had fallen in Whitehall, according to the National Weather Service.

The weather service warned morning travel could be "very difficult to impossible" due to snow covered roads and poor visibility in the southern Adirondack Mountains, western Mohawk Valley and northern Washington County. Those areas received mostly snow.

The rest of eastern upstate New York also posed serious challenges for drivers. The weather service said driving will be "very difficult" due to sleet and snow on roads, the accumulation of ice on pavement and poor visibility caused by blowing precipitation.

Mike Goodwin has been a stock broker, garbage man, and a house painter. He has been a journalist since 1995 and the Times Union has been his home since 2002. As a city desk editor, he's on the front lines of newsgathering for the Capital Region's newspaper. Think you have an interesting story? Contact him at mgoodwin@timesunion.com or 518-454-5465.

Shaniece Holmes-Brown is an alumna of Lincoln University of Pennsylvania, graduating with two bachelor's degrees in mass communications and English. She has been pursuing a career as a journalist for several years, having written for various publications and recently served as a reporting intern for the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents Association at the capitol in Harrisburg. She is currently a Hearst fellow covering breaking news at the Times Union. Reach her at Shaniece.Brown@TimesUnion.com

Roger Hannigan Gilson covers Columbia and Greene counties for the Times Union. He has worked as a reporter in the northern Hudson Valley since 2014 and spends most of his additional time outdoors. Drop him a note at roger.hannigangilson@timesunion.com.