Cape and parts of the South Shore could get up to 10 inches of snow

By Gal Tziperman Lotan, Globe Correspondent

Cape Cod and parts of the South Shore, battered by long power outages during last weekend’s storm, could see up to 10 additional inches of snow and gusts of wind at 50 miles an hour Sunday, said Alan Dunham, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

Officials from NStar, which had 350,000 customers without electricity last week, many of them on the Cape and South Shore, are planning to have extra crews available.

“We’ll be staffing our service center throughout the storm to make sure our communities are well served,” said NStar spokeswoman Annemarie Walsh. “We’re prepared.”

About 6 to 8 inches of snow are expected in the Boston area and North Shore Sunday, along with wind gusts of 40 to 45 miles an hour, Dunham said.

But a National Grid spokeswoman said the utility is not expecting storm-related damages as severe as they saw last weekend, when 251,000 customers lost power.

Still, the company will have extra crews on hand and contractors standing by tonight, said spokeswoman Debbie Drew.

“We’re keeping a close eye on the South Shore and the southeastern area of the state because that’s where the strongest wind gusts are expected,” she said.

Today’s snow left only trace amounts of accumulation in Boston, with most of it melting as soon as it hit the ground.

In Dorchester today, Guelmison Ribeiro could finally walk down his street without having to slog through piles of snow from last week’s storm. Some roads near his workplace in Weston still aren’t cleared, he said, and he’s not ready for more snow.

“I’ve been late to work all week because of delays on the bus,” said Ribeiro, 23, who said he has been hiking an extra mile to avoid walking along busy highways with unplowed shoulders.

His commute from his home on Brook Avenue to Weston typically takes about two hours, even without snow.

He said every time he goes outside, “it’s just snow. Ice. It’s crazy.”

The state’s Highway Division had 132 employees on the roads today, pre-treating highways with a magnesium chloride liquid deicer meant to slow accumulation and make for easy plowing, Department of Transportation spokesman Michael Verseckes said.

That’s a far cry from the more than 3,600 snow plows, front loaders, and other pieces of equipment deployed near the height of last weekend’s storm, he said.

“We’re not expecting a significant storm event, but in any case, we’ll be out there,” Verseckes said.

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino and his staff asked residents to be cautious but did not declare a snow emergency or parking ban in Boston, a spokeswoman said this evening.

The city’s public works department will also pre-treat roads with salt and brine, and the mayor’s hot line, 617-635-4500, will have extra staff Sunday.

Snow should taper off by Sunday night, giving way to a partly sunny and breezy Monday with highs in the low 30s, Dunham said.

No raindrops or snowflakes are expected through Friday, but but it will be far from T-shirt weather, with high temperatures expected to stay in the 30s, Dunham said.

“Hope springs eternal,” Dunham said, “but you’re in New England, and it is still February.”