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Areas
around Boston and to the south are expected to get more than 2 feet of
snow, according to this snowfall forecast map from the weather service's
Taunton office.
Forecasters: 2 t0 3 feet of snow possible in storm, with 5-foot drifts
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02/07/2013 4:29 PM
Areas around Boston and to the south are
expected to get more than 2 feet of snow, according to this snowfall
forecast map from the weather service’s Taunton office. Berkshire County
is covered by the Albany, N.Y., office, which predicts it will get 14
to 18 inches.
The service said the storm, potentially a historic blizzard, would pose a threat to people’s lives and property and warned that conditions would deteriorate quickly as the storm develops Friday. Travel will become nearly impossible by the Friday evening commute into Saturday.
“The sooner you can be off the roads the better,” said weather service meteorologist William Babcock. “You want to give yourself some time to be at your safe spot before the storn hits its strongest.”
Forecasters have issued blizzard watches for much of the state. They said that heavy snow, blowing and drifting, could cut visibilities to a quarter-mile, causing white-out conditions. The winds, which could reach 65 miles per hour, could also damage trees and structures and bring down power wires, causing scattered power outages.
A National Weather Service snowfall total forecast map issued this afternoon shows a swath of the state north and south of Boston getting more than 2 feet of snow, with amounts tapering off somewhat to the west and south, where the island of Nantucket is expected to get only up to 6 inches and the outer Cape only as much as 8.
The forecasters are also warning that the storm will produce moderate coastal flooding Friday evening and moderate to major coastal flooding Saturday morning. Large waves, along with a 2-to-3-foot storm surge, are expected to devour beaches and flood shore roads. They also may put shoreside homes at risk during the Saturday morning high tide.
Emergency officials huddled to make plans, out-of-state utility crews were summoned, officials canceled school, and residents flocked to stores for shovels and other essentials, asthe Bay State girded today for the storm.
Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino urged people to stay off the roads Friday and canceled school,but he was far from alone as scores of other school systems around the state followed suit.
In what appeared to be the epitome of the frenzy to prepare, so many people were stocking up for the storm in Salem today that the fire department responded to the Market Basket supermarket for storm-related overcrowding, a fire official said.
Governor Deval Patrick was slated to hold a briefing late this afternoon to discuss the storm.
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