A significant winter storm pummeled Massachusetts beginning Saturday night, bringing heavy snow that snarled traffic and created messy conditions on roadways.
The storm came through the state in two parts, with a batch of heavy, wet snow falling on Saturday night before lighter, fluffier snow began to fall on Sunday afternoon as temperatures dipped below freezing, said Torry Dooley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Dooley said he expected “light festive” snow showers to continue in eastern Massachusetts until about 7 to 9 p.m. But, he said those showers likely would not amount to much in accumulation.
Dooley said the snowfall abated Sunday morning due to drier air mixing in late Saturday night, contributing to a calm morning. But, as the drier air moved out, the snowfall really began in earnest, falling most heavily in northeastern areas of the state like Haverhill and Pepperell.
While the weather service did not have specific snow accumulations for much of southern Essex County, Dooley said Danvers reported about 8 inches, while nearby Middleton reported 7.5. Roughly 2.5 to 3 inches of snow had collected on the ground as temperatures dropped. Numerous Department of Public Works trucks could be seen on the roads, which were largely empty aside from a handful of cars and snow plows. Roads were caked in a layer of slushy ice, leading to some difficulties while traveling.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation said it had more than 2,300 pieces of equipment patrolling, plowing, and chemically treating roads at about 4 p.m.
State Police encouraged residents to stay off the roadways, writing, “If you don’t have to drive in a storm, please don’t.”
“If you do, please take it slow,” they warned.
Lynn Police Lt. Thomas Holland echoed that message but said the department has not seen an atypical call volume. While Holland said roadways in the city were “messier than normal,” he said the conditions were “pretty typical” for a storm like the one that descended on the region.
Still, he encouraged anyone who could stay home to do so.
In Nahant, police said they had not seen any “major issues” resulting from the storm. The town’s department of public works was working to salt and sand roads, said Officer John Monaco.
“It came fast and furious but they were on top of it,” he said.
David Procopio, a spokesman for State Police, said several weather-related crashes had been reported on state highways, but none that caused significant injuries.
Many local communities had parking bans in place beginning Saturday night that later expired on Sunday. Bans in Lynn and Saugus had expired as of The Item‘s press time, while the ban in Peabody was set to be lifted at 11 p.m. Sunday.
The storm also caused power outages throughout the region, with more than 150 National Grid customers in Lynn reporting they had lost power. The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency reported nearly 19,000 residents without power statewide as of about 5 p.m.
