Just wow.
Coastal flooding: intense. Even devastating in spots (see Brant Rock in Marshfield). Snow: unyielding. Blinding at times. Winds: hurricane force. Pummeling the coast and holding water at the beaches through multiple tide cycles.
Now, the end game. Feels like a never ending storm, doesn’t it? Folks are through with the totals. The “who’s getting what?” The “where’s the sweet spot?”, etc. They want it to flat-out end. I’m seeing that in stages. First the accumulating snow, then the nuisance snow, then the flurries. Why so slow? Blame the backside snow.
As is typical with storms of this magnitude, the snow on the back side of a nor’easter like this is an event unto itself. These are the last bands of snow pushed ashore by the storm, and then virtually abandoned. They’re left to decay, dissolve and disband by themselves. And that takes time.
Cleanup will be daunting for most, simple for few. Oodles of snow remain in the neighborhoods in Boston. Hundreds of man-hours will be needed to haul it out…and that means traffic tie-ups and frayed nerves. We were here two years ago with the blizzard in early February of 2013 (aka Nemo), so the experience will carry us, but it too takes time.
With more storms in the pipeline, it doesn’t look like we’ll be out of this pattern anytime soon. More snow (and mix) are possible Friday and another bigger storm Monday. Not nearly as big, but it means winter will roll on. Climatologically speaking, we’re also at the height of the stormy season in winter.
Hang in there !
Pete
Point of note on the record 3rd place snowfall of 33″ in Worcester for this storm:
While we understand some outlets (TV stations, government, private firms) reasoning behind classifying this storm as second-place for all time snow in Worcester, we have elected to include the Blizzard of 1997 in our assessment of the record data on-air and therefore drop this storm to third place all-time. To us, it’s no different than including the unofficial records that were kept in Boston – from the Common to Quincy during WWII. Those data sets could have been compromised and inaccurate, but are nonetheless seen as the “records” for the city of Boston. To us, disregarding the Blizzard of 1997 is disregarding an important milestone in Worcester’s weather history. We feel that it happened, and a proxy amount of 33″ – while not “official” – is better than none.