CHATHAM -- Patrick Wemitt took a break from snow-blowing his neighbor's driveway on Old Kinderhook Road Monday morning and tried to measure the snowfall by hand.

He bent down and stacked his glove against the massive snowbank, trying to use his carpentry skills to estimate its height.

"Looks like about 22 inches," Wemitt said.

Almost. The National Weather Service put Chatham's final accumulation total from Monday's nor'easter at 20.3 inches.

But the storm that blanketed the Capital Region slammed other parts of Columbia County and areas south of Albany with upward of 2 feet of snow.

North Hillsdale was pummeled with 24 inches of snow, while Ghent had 22 and Kinderhook had 21, according to the National Weather Service. Columbia County issued a snow emergency; county buildings were closed and people were urged to stay off the roads.

In Chatham, postal worker John Mehan climbed through towering snowbanks and was pelted with wind and snow as he made his deliveries in the near-white-out conditions. He said the storm delayed his route by at least an hour.

John Stevenson, an Ohio-based truck driver, can usually make the trip from Springfield, Mass., to Albany in two hours.

Overnight, it took him five hours.

"I could barely see in front of me last night," Stevenson said Monday morning at a rest stop.

More Information Snow emergencies Albany: All normal parking rules are suspended. Until 8 p.m. Tuesday, cars may be parked only on the even-numbered side of the street. At 8 p.m. Tuesday, cars may be parked only on the odd side of the street. Normal parking rules could resume as soon as 8 p.m. Wednesday. For information, call 476-SNOW or go to website at www.albanyny.gov. If your car was towed, contact the police department's Traffic Safety Division at 458-5675 for information on how to retrieve it. Green Island: All vehicles must be removed from village streets by 7:30 a.m. Tuesday. Vehicles will be towed at their owner's expense if they are not moved. Coeymans and Ravena: No parking on town or village streets through Tuesday morning. Watervliet: Begins at 8 a.m. Tuesday. Vehicle owners must move be prepared to move vehicles for time it takes to remove snow. Vehicles ticketed and towed if in the way of snow removal. See More Collapse

Travis Mitchison was plowing the long driveway of a home on County Route 17 in Chatham when his white Chevrolet pickup got stuck in a tall bank.

After Mitchison shoveled around his wheels for several minutes, another truck with a plow that was driving by stopped and pulled his truck out with a chain.

"I've never had my truck get stuck up here before," Mitchison said.

The conditions made for treacherous early morning driving conditions. But with schools closed for the holidays and many people taking long weekends from work, there were not as many drivers on the roads Monday as usual.

A snow emergency was in effect for Albany County as well, which had just over 10 inches of snowfall, according to the National Weather Service.

Accumulation totals ranged from 7 to 11 inches in Saratoga County.

At Albany International Airport, nearly 40 flights were canceled Monday and many others were delayed.

All flights to and from the North Country, New York City and Newark were canceled, as were numerous flights to and from Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C.

A band of heavy snow caused by a low pressure front Monday hovered over the Taconic Mountains to areas of Southern Vermont. The front moved off the East Coast and the snow was reduced to flurries by 10 a.m. The skies were clear by noon, but heavy wind gusts of up to 30 mph whipped snow across the roads all afternoon, forming snowbanks up to 4 feet high.

The National Weather Service said the winds would calm overnight, clearing the skies and dropping temperatures into single digits.

Reach Bryan Fitzgerald at 454-5452 or e-mail bfitzgerald@timesunion.com.