'Potentially Historic Blizzard' is Headed Toward Massachusetts

.By Les Masterson (Patch Staff)

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The National Weather Service is predicting a “potentially historic blizzard” to hit Massachusetts starting on Monday night and stretching into Wednesday.

Eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island are under a Blizzard Watch and the NWS is predicting some areas may get more than two feet of snow. To put that into perspective, that is more than half of what Boston gets in an average winter.

“Travel may become impossible and life threatening across the entire region. This has the potential to be a historic storm,” said the NWS.

The worst of the storm is expected to be Monday night through Tuesday afternoon. There is a potential for blizzard conditions with zero visability, said the NWS.

The heavy snow may bring down trees and power lines, which means power outages are possible.

The heavy snow will be accompanied with damaging wind gusts of 40-60 mph inland and 60-70 mph gusts are possible on Cape Cod the Islands. There is moderate coastal flooding expected and pockets of major coastal flooding possible.

7News’ Pete Bouchard said 15-24 inches of snow across the entire region is likely except for the Cape, which will get closer to a foot of snow.

7News said the top snowstorm in Boston on record was 27.5 inches during a storm on Feb. 17-19, 2003.

Bouchard said there could be major flight delays and cancellations and suggested people leave on Sunday or early on Monday if possible.

“Don’t take this one lightly. Tempests like this only come around once and a while. Heed the advice of the authorities and chill out at home,” said Bouchard.

Here are some links to keep handy:

• National Weather Service
• Latest closings from 7News
• Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency’s Twitter page
• MassDOT’s Twitter page
• Mass State Police’s Twitter page
• Logan Airport flight information

rson (Patch Staff)