Snow Emergency Is Still in Effect, and School Is Cancelled Again

Another snow day is on the way as the Nor'easter rolls through Boston.

Photo via Mayor's Office/Isabel Leon

Photo via Mayor’s Office/Isabel Leon

As a Nor’easter continues bearing down on the city, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh says a snow emergency remains in effect indefinitely. In a press conference, he also announced that school has already been cancelled in the city for Friday.

The heaviest part of the storm was just beginning to slam Boston Thursday afternoon, with low visibility, frigid temperatures, and heavy winds with gusts of up to 50 or 60 miles per hour.

At 2:30 p.m. at Logan Airport, temperatures were in the low-20s, wind was howling at 37 miles per hour, and it appeared possible that snow totals could reach 17 inches, according to the National Weather Service.

The storm in Boston now officially meets the criteria of a blizzard, according to the Weather Service says. If conditions persist for three hours or more, the designation could stick.

Both Walsh and Gov. Charlie Baker urged people to remain in their homes if possible, stay off the road and to look out for neighbors.

Space savers will have to remain off the roads for now, as they are outlawed until the storm passes. That is, unless you live in the South End, in which case space savers are always banned.

Some people took the opportunity to wage a snowball battle on Boston Common.

For those who need to get around, Baker and Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack say that the MBTA has continued to run a regular schedule today. By mid-afternoon there had been no major delays. Some buses were running on a winter schedule, some ferry service was reduced, and shuttles were replacing trolleys on the Mattapan line beginning at 2:30 p.m. The T is providing regular updates on Twitter and its website.

Pollack and Baker say the commute went more smoothly thanks to winter preparedness measures undertaken since the devastating storm in 2015, among them third-rail replacements and the addition of plows to the front of many trains, as well as the newly created emergency command center for storms. Pollack called this the “biggest storm since” that now-infamous one that ground much of the system to a halt.

“As I have said, we are confident that all the pieces are in place for the T to be able to operate successfully, reliably, and safely through a storm like this,” Pollack says.

There were also reports that thunder was also roaring around southern England, and possibly Boston, in the midst of the blizzard, a phenomenon known as thundersnow.