Published in the December 18, 2020 edition.

WAKEFIELD — About 15 inches of snow fell on Wakefield late Wednesday and a good part of Thursday as residents dug themselves out, the DPW and its contractors kept roads open and school officials decided to officially call Friday a snow day in the wake of the first winter storm of 2020-21.

DPW Director Joe Conway said yesterday that a full snow removal operation began Thursday around 12:15 a.m. and would continue for a couple of hours after snow accumulation slowed around 3 yesterday afternoon. 

Supt. of Schools Doug Lyons sent a message to families early last night that students were getting the day off today.

“We have been monitoring the snow fall and its impact on our school facilities throughout the day. Based on conversations with several stakeholders, we have decided that tomorrow, December 18, 2020, will be a traditional snow day closure for all schools and programs in the Wakefield Public Schools. There will be no remote teaching and learning and we will make up the day in June. This closure includes all of our students participating in the full remote learning option at all levels. Today, we enacted our remote learning plans allowing us to count the day on our school calendar.

“We hope that you can take tomorrow as a day to rest or to catch up on unfinished work or projects. Our administrative team will meet to debrief our first day of implementing snow day remote schedules to see if adjustments need to be made. Our intent is that we will use our remote plans on all future snow days, unless there are circumstances that warrant a modified plan.

“Thank you all for your feedback. Please know that it was considered as we made the call to use our remote learning plan today and as we made the decision to do a traditional snow day closure tomorrow. We are navigating this year trying our best to maintain a balance of time on learning and necessary breaks.

“We hope you have a wonderful weekend.”

The town’s trash pickup was delayed a day by the storm and a parking ban on all town streets was not lifted until 7 this morning.

As the storm ramped out and DPW crews hit the streets, police had to have about 35 vehicles towed because they were impeding snow removal operations.

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Boston had more than 9 inches of snow early Thursday morning, breaking the previous record for the date of 6.4 inches in 2013. In Boston’s Seaport neighborhood, the streets were mostly empty except for an army of workers blowing sidewalks clear in front of luxury apartment buildings, stores and office towers.

“It’s been a while since we have had this,” said Mark Pusung, a 33-year-old Seaport resident walking his Shar-Pei dog Muffin. “I wanted my dog to experience it because he could run around.”

Xicheng Cai, 28, a consultant who lives and works in Seaport, was decked out in what he called his full polar gear including boots, windproof pants and ski goggles.

“Wonderful,” he said of the snow. “This is what Christmas should look like.”

A few blocks away, Sara Boxell, 33, who lives in South Boston, was in the middle of her 4-mile run.

“I love it,” she said. “Luckily, I’m working from home so I don’t have to drive anywhere.”

Massachusetts’ transportation chief said it could take longer than usual to clear snow-clogged highways and streets because the coronavirus pandemic has knocked one in 10 plow drivers out of action.

Parts of northern New England saw as much as 7 inches of snow per hour, said Margaret Curtis, meteorologist for the National Weather Service. A rate of 1 inch per hour is typically enough to make it hard for snowplow trucks to keep up.

Snow totals topped 3 feet across a wide swath of New Hampshire, and Maine’s southernmost county saw 1 to 2 feet.

Hazardous roads caused dozens of crashes in New Hampshire, Connecticut and eastern New York. New York State Police said a snowmobiler was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer on Interstate 787 in downtown Albany at 2:30 a.m.

In Maine, snowboarder Fletcher Moffett grabbed a few runs at the Sunday River ski resort before reporting to work as a bartender.

“Being outside is keeping me sane” during the pandemic, he said.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.