Residents woke This morning to far less snow than originally forecasted for Tuesday, January 27. With just half a foot of powdery snowfall clinging to windowsills and mounded on rooftops across town, precipitation fell until roughly noon on Tuesday. The prior night's blizzard conditions were downgraded to a winter storm advisory by morning, and the travel ban, which Governor Dannel P. Malloy had ordered for all traffic Monday as of 9 pm, was lifted at 8:30 am.

Taking advantage of relatively clear streets and a snow day off from work and school, many resident stepped out into the blustery, frigid day bundled in parkas and hats, with snow shovels in hand.

On Grand Place Terrace off of Queen Street, two younger residents and their father were headed to the neighbor's house to help clear snow from the walkways. The Masottas, Noah, 8, his sister Ivy, almost 5, and their father John stood at the curb with their dog Lainey.

Throughout town were homeowners walking behind snowblowers or bent over shovels. At the bottom of Church Hill Road in Sandy Hook Center, Michael Porco Jr and crews from Porco Construction Co. Inc. cleared sidewalks and parking lots. Light traffic, mostly plow trucks including one driven by Dan Holmes of Holmes Fine Gardens, was traveling early Tuesday afternoon.

While many pushed snow out of the way, Mother Nature  effortlessly threw some back. Gusting winds carried swirling snow across driveways and streets, and looked like fog drifting along the open fields and between buildings in Fairfield Hills. Working to keep the municipal space plowed were town trucks and staff including John Benvenuti, who traced a route along the curb.

By mid-afternoon many children stopped for hot chocolate at Dunkin Donuts on Queen Street, where they thawed after a day sledding at Treadwell Park. With most streets and homes cleared by evening, residents Tuesday had one less winter storm to handle this year.