Residents warned of an icy commute
This weather service forecast map shows only small snowfall totals. It's the freezing rain that could be the problem on Wednesday.
By Globe Staff
Get ready for an ugly commute. A winter storm bearing snow, sleet, and freezing rain will soon arrive in the state, and by morning the roads will be glazed with ice, weather forecasters said. In some areas, the ice could also bring down trees and power lines.
“Use extra time and caution” when driving, said National Weather Service meteorologist Neal Strauss. “Any time there’s freezing rain, the roads are going to be very treacherous.”
In western and central Massachusetts, as well as interior sections of northeastern Massachusetts, the storm is expected to begin with snow tonight, then change in the early morning hours to sleet and freezing rain, which will continue into the afternoon.
Six inches of snow could fall in some areas of western Massachusetts. The storm is also expected to produce a quarter-inch to half-inch glaze of ice. Both the morning and evening commutes will be affected before the precipitation changes back to snow showers, Strauss said.
The power company that took flak for its response to the mid-December ice storm says it's gearing up for the storm.
Unitil, which took nearly two weeks to restore power to some residents in a cluster of central Massachusetts communities, said it has assembled more than 90 crews to respond to storm-related outages and it will ask for additional crews from other utilities if needed.
Strauss said the icing problems wouldn’t be as bad as they were in the December storm, but Wednesday's storm would still have a “significant impact" in the area.
In the Boston area and southeastern Massachusetts, the storm will follow the same pattern, beginning with snow and then changing to sleet and freezing rain in time to snarl the morning commute. Less than a quarter inch of ice is expected, but that, combined with a coating to 2 inches of snow and sleet will result in travel problems, forecasters said. By early Wednesday afternoon, the precipitation should change to plain rain.
The forecasters warned that untreated roads -- and bridges and overpasses -- could be especially slippery.
Meteorologist Matthew Belk also said that such storms can be tough to predict because the types of precipitation that fall depend on small changes in the temperature.
"It could really change dramatically, depending on what the temperatures do," he said. "We do our best to forecast what the temperatures are going to be, but we’ll find out what they actually are when the time comes."
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Oh NO!!!! Snow in January!!!! Quick, I need to get to the store to pick up bread and milk....
In anticipation of dangerous and congested a.m.& p.m commuting conditions and the need for road safety vehicles to have clear passage, will City of Boston and the Commonwealth issue a directive that all non-essential personnel not come into their jobs tomorrow...i.e. closure of state and city offices? This move might make as much sense as the similar move prior to the December snow storm.
In anticipation of dangerous and congested a.m.& p.m commuting conditions and the need for road safety vehicles to have clear passage, will City of Boston and the Commonwealth issue a directive that all non-essential personnel not come into their jobs tomorrow...i.e. closure of state and city offices? This move might make as much sense as the similar move prior to the December snow.
Welcome to Massachusetts !!!!!!! :(
Will the governor be calling a state of emergency and also asking all non-emergency state employees not to report? I certainly hope so because I don't see any difference between this storm (timing of) and the one from 12/19/2008.
hahahhahahahah. love it!
Get Al Gore on the phone, pronto! This can't be happening when Global Warming is our biggest threat! Where's Al when we need him?
just think it will be over soon enough...10 more weeks and its spring ;) dont you just love new england weather
Dude honestly relax...you are on a site that provides information...I know we live in New England and should be used to snow, but its their job to give info to people. You wouldn't go to espn.com and give them crap for getting excited about the super bowl....
RUN TO THE HILLS!
Actually, the problem comes when people try to drive on ice as if they were on dry pavement. And we're all just too darn important to use patience. And if I lived in Lunenburg, Fitchburg, etc. I would be running out to get a generator!
Clearly none of you who cast stones were stuck driving in the Dec 11, 2008 storm. New England or not, precaution is not always a bad thing. Report back when it takes you several hours to get home or where you need to be when it would normally only take several minutes.
I miss the snow- staying home and exploring online with the computer to far flung friends, sipping hot tea and watching the thick, heavy flakes falling, silently ever so silently. But here I sit in GA, with my never above 64 degrees thermostat on colder days and 58 at night or even off on some days. Yes, I miss the beauty but not the scratch-scratch of my scrapper on my car's windshield after coming out of work in the cold dark night. Yikes- what a time of trial and waiting for Springtime....Enjoy the whiteness and chill- mysterious in its beauty...
Still better to be here than at Gaza. We get rain/snow but they got ... you know
Oh DonM you are so witty . . . sure, because Global Warming MEANS is to be HOT HOT HOT everywhere all the time and here we have ice and snow in New England, and WINTER of all times.
Global Warming is about climate, not weather, genius.
I'm going to buy a gun to protect myself from the looters.
I'm Meltingggggggg
ON MY WAY TO MARKET BASKET NOW HOPE THERE IS STILL FOOD LEFT
DonM, I suggest you educate yourself. If tomorrow's (and the average temperature) was where it is supposed to be, as opposed to being elevated, ice woudn't be an issue, it would just be glorious snow.
Replying to Don M. -- One of the first effects of global warming is the melting of polar ice, which will result in colder water in the Gulf Stream, creating more powerful winter storms...
well said, relax
in the past this would be no big deal to me, but after going 7 days without power, heat and water, now every time I hear a little wind I freak!
I'm worried. My mother lives in Fitchburg. She lost power for 3 days after the last storm, and her neighbor across the street lost it for 2 weeks. I hope Unitil doesn't fall down on the job again.
Hey, poster #1, don't forget toilet paper!
Replying to Lisa -- Please do your homework. Don't only listen to the mainstream media. In the Antartic both ice extent and concentration are greater now than when measurements began in 1979. This year has so far seen 10 out of 11 months where sea ice has been greater this year than in 1979. Obviously the southern hemisphere isn't suffering from global warming. Satellite measurements are also in direct conflict with what you hear on the evening news about global warming melting ice in the Antarctic. For some reason Mr. Gore doesn't care to respond to such facts.
After spending a couple of weeks in South Brazil, at some paradise called Camboriu, I`ll be arriving in Boston tomorrow morning. That weather could not be worst after a New Year`s that looked like our fourth of July, so hot it was.
Will Cadillac Deval Patrick or Mumbles Menino issue the following advisory to the end of winter:
1. Old people: stay inside off streets and buses & subways, you only get in the way of fleet footed citizens
2. Under no circumstances do we want to see a bubbly tv reporter interviewing Mumbles or His Honorness Patrick wearing a sweater or a side shot of Mumbles and his excess chins
3. Get these love-starved hispanics off subways and bus stations from staring at people, esp women. Anyone tripping on their thoughts?
If Massachusetts has so many "non essential" employees can't we just lay them all off? Why do we continue to pay them?
My god...Weather bloggers are an asexual lot.
AGAIN!
Here we go again. Should my son really try to catch his noon flight to Atlanta? Should I wake him?
This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
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