Residents awoke to a white-washed world Thursday, February 9, and the occasional rumbling wasn't a returning snowplow, but thunder. Since the early morning hours before sunrise, winter storm Niko's first flakes began to fall and would continue to bury the region - 11.1 inches in Newtown, according the National Weather Service - with a wet, stubborn snow through the mid-afternoon and early evening.

Despite Wednesday's mid-50s temperatures that made snow a faraway thought, Niko "hammered" the Northeast, including Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia, according to information and updates posted on Weather.com. The site noted reports of blizzard conditions in other parts of New England, including southeastern portions of Connecticut, referring to Niko as a "one-day wonder" in the Northeast.

Resident Don Ramsey spent time Thursday photographing stormy weather swirling around the center of town. Tufts of white began collecting on rhododendron leaves and clinging to the evergreens. After several hours, most surfaces were piled with towers of snow nearly a foot high.

Sounds of snowblowers, grinding plows, and the rhythmic shoveling began.

Niko blew through the region, exiting by Thursday night with high winds and a drop in temperature, bracketed by Wednesday's and Friday's blue skies.