Could this end up as Boston’s worst winter?
So far this is the fifth snowiest but winter of 2015 has not yet finished with Massachusetts.
The story of a Boston blizzard: at first a warning in the forecast, then the ferocity of the storm; next, the burden of clearance. Now you wonder at the beauty, it’s fun for a day, then you run out of bread. Soon it’s back to work, blocked roads, failed public transport.
But there is more of the same; deeper drifts, records broken, temperatures plummeting, excuses made. Railroad points frozen, lines down, tracks buried. Car won’t start – car won’t stop. Bus was late, bus was full…
After days of crippling snow, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority had to shut down the train service on Tuesday and Governor Charlie Baker chose to activate the National Guard.
The continuing snow, which had reached two metres by Wednesday Feb 11, has elevated winter 2014-2015 into the top 10 snowiest in Boston’s recorded history. The worst was 1995-1996, with 2.71 metres.
Boston set a record for the most snow recorded in a 30-day period, with 182cm, humbling the standing record of 149cm, set in February 1978. Bangor, in neighbouring Maine, tied its own 30-day snowfall record with 132cm, which hasn’t been seen in such a short period since 1969.
Massachusetts has been in line for every spell of snow since December, followed by ever decreasing temperatures in the following northerly-quarter winds. The temperature in Boston hasn’t been above freezing since January 26, except for one Thursday, Feb 5 when 3C made a surprise appearance.
Windchill is now regularly quoted at below -20C and this weekend, yet another blizzard is likely in the coldest air of the winter so far. This is part of the United States named New England, after the first settlers. The weather is never like this where they came from, ‘Old’ England.