Heavy Snow — Eastern Kent, Rhode Island

2017-03-14 · Eastern Kent, Rhode Island

Event narrative

Snow began falling off-and-on before daybreak, then heavy snow fell during the morning hours, before changing to rain before noon. The Dept. of Transportation reported 6.5 inches of snow in Warwick and a trained spotter reported 6.3 inches in West Warwick.

Wider weather episode

A major winter storm moved up the east coast, hugging the southern NJ coast then moving rapidly northeast across southern Rhode Island and interior southeast Massachusetts. In Rhode Island, snowfall amounts were highest in the northwest hills, where a changeover to sleet and rain did not happen until late in the afternoon. Along the south coast, only 2 to 6 inches fell, but more around a foot occurred in northwest Providence County. Strong/damaging winds gusted to 45 to 60 mph across much of Rhode Island.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 675846. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.