WAKEFIELD — Forty eight hours ago, we hit 70 degrees. Today is something quite different.
At about 9 a.m., five inches of snow covered town streets with more on the way as the white stuff came down at a clip of about an inch an hour. It had not changed over to sleet so “it is not like moving cement,” said DPW Director Joseph Conway.
Based on reports yesterday morning, the DPW planned to begin its snow removal operation before dawn today. At 2 a.m. DPW crews were called in and an hour later so were all available contractors. In all, 36 town pieces were used to remove snow in addition to 32 pieces owned by hired contractors. Seven more DPW employees handled sidewalks and town-owned buildings and parking lots.
“There was no real outlier from what the forecasters had predicted, which was nice,” Conway said.
At about 1:35 a.m. today police began notifying a local towing company of motor vehicles around town that were in violation of a parking ban being enforced.
A weather storm warning was expected to be in effect until about midnight. Forecasters were saying most of the snow would be on the ground by noon today.
It is expected to warm up a little and then refreeze tonight.
The National Weather Service announced around 7:30 a.m. that additional snowfall would be mostly confined to areas along and north of the Mass Pike. The snow-sleet line was expected to advance north across the state through midday, then any mixed precipitation in eastern Mass. and Rhode Island would change back to snow during mid/late afternoon.
In all, our area was expected to receive between six and nine inches of snow.
Residents across the U.S. Northeast awoke Friday to steady snow that could bring a foot or more of accumulation to many areas, and a sloppy mix of sleet and ice to other spots.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for most of New England and eastern New York, and a winter weather advisory stretching from Ohio into coastal areas of southern New England and northern Maine.
Governors across the region urged residents to stay off the roads if possible, and slow down and keep a safe distance from plows if driving.
“If you don’t have to travel tomorrow, we urge you to consider staying home, and if you do need to travel, please use caution throughout the day,” Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said in a statement.
Baker and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont told nonessential state employees to stay home.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation said it had about 3,900 pieces of equipment available for road treatment and snow removal, and started pretreating highways on Thursday evening,
With travel treacherous, the speed limit on the Massachusetts Turnpike was reduced to 40 mph.
Public school children in many Northeast states were on February vacation this week.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
