As the snow falls, so do records for extreme weather.
In Boston on Monday — with 62.5 inches of snowfall since January 15 — the record for most snow in a 30-day period has already been broken. The previous record was set in 1978.
With the third storm in as many weeks, how long will it be before the new record will be surpassed?
“I know that it’s frustrating right now, particularly with the amount of snow, and it’s frustrating to all of us,” said Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. “This is snow like we’ve never seen before in the past.”
Boston is in the cross hairs again, and 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.
After the storm, cold air will funnel in, followed by yet another snow event for Thursday and Friday.
Authorities say the problem is not the storm itself, but that it comes right after two previous ones. Three straight Mondays, three straight snowstorms.
To put it in perspective: Only nine days into February, the amount of snowfall makes this year the fifth-snowiest recorded February.
Schools and streets
Schools in parts of the Northeast, including Boston, will be closed Monday and Tuesday.
Boston’s mayor said students haven’t had a full week of school in three weeks. He 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.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, known as the T, suspended all rail services starting at 7 p.m. ET Monday. No rail service is scheduled for Tuesday.
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. FlightAware.com showed more than 700 flights within, into and out of the United States canceled for Sunday, on top of the more than 1,900 flights canceled as of Monday at 2:25 p.m. ET.
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 to 80 inches of snow around the commonwealth,” Baker said. “This is pretty much unprecedented.”
Later, he told reporters that he had signed an emergency declaration for the state, which should help with access to equipment.
“If I’ve learned one thing over the course of the past two weeks, it’s (that) Mother Nature makes the rules,” Baker said.
One Boston resident used the hashtag #getmeoutofhere to describe his feelings of being in the city during the storm.
Record snowfall
The two other storms that hit the Northeast in the past two weeks closed airports, canceled classes and created mountains of snow along cleared roadways.
“It’s kind of depressing sometimes,” Jesus Cora of Nashua, New Hampshire, told CNN affiliate WMUR. “It’s really depressing, you know?”
Boston University freshman Cameron Barkan shared the same sentiment.
“I’m tired of it,” said 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 also set a record for the snowiest seven-day period, 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 has been pushed back to Wednesday, and jury selection in the trial of Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was similarly delayed.
