This image taken on January 3, 2014 by the Suomi NPP satellite shows the blanket of snow that stretches from the Midwest across to New England after a massive winter storm moved over the region on January 1-3, 2014. (Source: NASA/NOAA)

Winter Storm Hercules (in Greek mythology, Hercules is the son of Zeus and famous for his strength) brought heavy snow and bitterly cold air to the Midwest and northeastern portion of the U.S. just in time to ring in the New Year of 2014.

Tom Niziol, winter weather expert for the Weather Channel (Facebook | Twitter), says that roughly 106 million Americans were directly affected by Hercules throughout a 3-day span, notably Chicago, Detroit, New York City, and Boston.

The spectacular satellite image above shows the swath of snow left behind by Hercules in the Northeast on Jan. 3, 2014

(MORE: Hercules State-By-State Impact)

Snowfall Totals From Hercules

In Illinois, Hercules' arctic air interacted with the Lake Michigan to create large snowfall amounts. Gurnee, Ill. picked up 18 inches of snow, and 10.9 inches fell at O'Hare Airport, impacting air travel for days.

Additional top snowfall amounts in the Midwest include Evanston, Ill. (13 inches), La Porte, Ind. (12 inches), Racine, Wis. (10.3 inches), and Detroit (11.1 inches)

Winter Storm Hercules dumped up to 18 inches of snow in the Rochester, N.Y. area by Friday, while up to 14 inches is reported Friday morning in parts of eastern New York. New York City received 6.4 inches of snow, and 7.9 inches fell at both La Guardia and JFK airports.

Near 15 inches fell in Boston, with higher amounts north of the city, including23.5 inches inTopsfield and21 inches in Boxford.

Most notably, extremely cold temperatures were associated with heavy snow. At times, thermometers in the western portion of the Boston area reach single to negative temperature digits.

"I'll tell you this– I've never seen a situation where you have a 1-degree temperature and so much snow coming down," said Jim Cantore, meteorologist for The Weather Channel, early Friday morning in Boston.

This allowed very dry, powdery snow to develop in Massachusetts, where the moisture content within the snow was much lower than normal. On average, snowfall to liquid equivalent ratios are 10 inches of snow to 1 inch of equivalent liquid. According to The Weather Channel meteorologist Mike Seidel, snow-to-liquid ratios in Boston measured in at 40 to 1.

MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Photos From Winter Storm Hercules

Hercules Satellite Image

This image taken on January 3, 2014 by the Suomi NPP satellite shows the blanket of snow that stretches from the Midwest across to New England after a massive winter storm moved over the region on January 1-3, 2014. (Source: NASA/NOAA)