Another week, another snowstorm, another mess.
This is the continuing story of the winter of 2015.
Boston is in the cross hairs again, but winter storm warnings are in place across large portions of the Northeast, including Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
The National Weather Service forecasts 12 to 16 inches of snow by the time the storm ends Tuesday. For upstate New York, the numbers are 8 to 14 inches.
Schools and streets
Schools in parts of the Northeast, including Boston, will be closed Monday and Tuesday.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh issued another snow emergency and parking ban Sunday in anticipation of all the new snow. Cars left on city streets were being ticketed and towed to make room for snowplows.
Walsh urged Bostonians to stay indoors until the worst is over.
“These storms that we’re getting are unprecedented,” he said. “We’ve never seen this type of snow in the city of Boston at any other time in the history of our city.”
The storm was snarling air traffic again, but not as badly as in past weeks. FlightAware.com showed more than 1,500 flights into and out of the United States canceled for Monday, on top of the more than 700 flights scrubbed Sunday.
Boston Logan International Airport remained open, but most flights are canceled, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said Monday.
The big issue for the state, he said, is not the current snowfall, but the accumulation of snow over the past two weeks.
“It’s only been 14 days, and we’ve gotten 70-80 inches of snow around the commonwealth,” Baker said. “This is pretty much unprecedented.”
Record snowfall
Two other storms have hit the Northeast in the past two weeks, closing airports, canceling classes and creating mountains of snow along cleared roadways.
“I’m tired of it,” said Boston University freshman Cameron Barkan, who has missed three days of class because of the storms. “I usually like snow, but this is just a little much.”
Boston has set a record for the snowiest seven-day period in history, with over 40 inches, the National Weather Service said last week. The city is way past its average annual snowfall of 47 inches.
The string of storms is taking a toll on city coffers too. “We’ve gone through our $18 million budget for snow removal,” Walsh said.
No trials by storm
The weather forced big Massachusetts trials to be delayed.
The murder trial of former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez was postponed until Tuesday, while jury selection in the trial of Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was also delayed.
