Winter Storm in Western Essex, Massachusetts

Generally 12 to 18 inches of snow fell. Some of the highest amounts were 21 inches in Andover and 14.5 inches in Groveland.

Explosive cyclogenesis of a low pressure center off the Mid Atlantic coast brought a strong winter storm with blizzard conditions to central and eastern Massachusetts as well as Rhode Island on Monday. The storm tracked from east of the Carolinas to the 70w/40n benchmark bringing extreme snowfall rates of 2 to 4 inches per hour and winds gusting to hurricane force along the coast and 50 to 60 mph inland. The heaviest snow was centered over central Rhode Island and southeast Massachusetts where over 30 inches of snow fell. The highest amount for the storm was 37.9 inches at T.F. Green Airport in Rhode Island. Snow tapered off Monday evening. There was some minor to moderate coastal flooding along the eastern Massachusetts coast but impact from coastal flooding was minimal. This was a record breaking storm in some aspects including state snowfall records for Rhode Island. The storm crippled movement across much of southern New England especially southeast Massachusetts and Rhode Island where plows could not keep up and some municipalities actually halted plowing for a time at the peak. The combination of heavy, wet snow and strong winds led to many power outages especially over southeast Massachusetts where some did not get power for 4+ days. Cape Cod was especially hard hit with power outages.