Thursday, 4:30 PM
Snow, rain, sleet -- again
(David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)
A woman tried to secure her scarf today against a gust of wind as she walked on St. James Street in Boston.
By Andrew Ryan and Mac Daniel, Globe Staff
This is why people move to Florida.
With four days left until spring, the largest winter storm of the season is dumping what is predicted to be 6 to 10 inches of snow, sleet, and rain today in Boston.
At times, an inch of snow an hour may fall in the city. Further inland, more than a foot is expected.
"That will make for a pretty messy evening commute," said Charlie Foley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton. "There should be plenty of delays."
Erik Abell, spokesman for the Massachusetts Highway Department, said the agency had 2,700 pieces of equipment treating roads statewide and expect number to increase as the storm intensifies. "We’ll continue aggressively treating the roads throughout the night," he said.
A series of crashes just over the border in New Hampshire had impacted traffic on Interstate 93, causing backups in Massachusetts that Abell said was preventing crews from plowing the roadway. Whiteout conditions slowed traffic to a crawl and caused numerous spin-outs and accidents.
"However as soon as that incident clears up we have troops on standby to treat that section of 93," Abell said.
In Massachusetts, conditions were less severe. "Most of the stuff that's going on right now is spin-outs," said State Police Sergeant Robert Bousquet. Snowfall was affecting traffic north and west of the city. "People are driving at speeds too great for the conditions," he said.
One factor that has helped ease congestion is that today is the observation of Evacuation Day, a city holiday in Boston, Bousquet said.
Logan International Airport remained open as of 4 p.m., with 160 inbound cancellations and 136 outbound cancellations as of 2:30 p.m. Airport officials were using one active runway while clearing a second of snow, said Massport spokesman Phil Orlandella.
In Logan at Terminal B, lines at some ticket counters were hundreds of passengers long. Arrival and departure monitors flashed "canceled." Stranded travelers pulled out their cell phones.
"When you're a kid you hope it snows, when you're an adult you hope it doesn't," said Ashley Lingerfeldt, a banking consultant who was on hold with his travel agency hoping to find a flight home. "I was heading to Charlotte, [N.C.] There's no snow. It's 70 degrees."
In Boston, the heavy snow turned over to icy sleet as evening approached, and pouring rain was expected by early Saturday morning.
"Everything will be washed away," Foley said.
The melting snow and rain is expected to block drains and cause some flooding in low-lying streets and near small streams.
On Saturday, temperatures are expected to hit the 40s. Temperatures on Sunday are predicted to stay above freezing and reach the upper 30s.
The storm comes at the end of a tame winter. Before the snow began falling today, only 6.4 inches of snow had fallen at Logan, far below the season average of 41.8 inches.
This is New England, however, and late season storm are not unusual. More than 13 inches of snow blasted Boston on March 19, 1965. Three years ago today, 6 1/2 inches of snow blanketed the city.
