9:32 AM — Holy Shit Snow, Batman! OMFG. There really isn't any better way to describe what's going on here than swear words and tween intarweb lingo. The National Weather Service says (shortened and rearranged to be more narrative):

An extreme situation is occurring in eastern Massachusetts. Four inches of snow was reported in 25 minutes at Chelmsford. The North Shore is being blitzed by snowfall rates of almost 4 inches per hour. It may last only another hour or two but its a complete short term paralyser. 8 inches of snow may fall in portions of the Boston area in a 2 hour period during mid and late morning. Nantucket may end up with only 12 to 22 inches.

Scattered power outages have occurred this morning as winds all along the coast gust between 55 and 65 mph on bostons north and south shores and even on Narragansett Bay. A 78 mph wind gust was reported. Power outages may become widespread this afternoon on the cape and Nantucket when the brunt of wind hits there, between 75 and 80 mph.

Final blizzard totals for most of eastern Massachusetts will range between 28 and 38 inches setting a new single storm record for Boston, surpassing the amount from the great blizzard of 78 and the presidents day storm of 2003. Isolated totals of 40 inches are possible. Even if this storm comes up slightly short of record, this is an extremely dangerous life threatening storm because of severe blowing and drifting of the newly fallen snow and tumbling temperatures. Drifts of at least 6 feet are occurring.

A Blizzard Warning is issued when sustained wind speeds or frequent gusts of over 35 mph are expected with considerable falling and/or blowing and drifting snow. Whiteout conditions occur at times. Those venturing outdoors may become lost or disoriented, so persons in the warning area are advised to stay indoors.

Okay, so even if we don't beat the record, we're still getting 10"/hr, totals of 40", and drifts of 6'. I'm super glad that I was merely transitioning out of my mothers womb during the great blizzard of '78, and that I wasn't the one having contractions while sticking my head out the car window to tell my dad where the road was on the way to the hospital so I could have 20 more hours of labor before finally being cut open to release the parasitic beast inside. (That's me if you lost track.)   ¶ permalink | 0 musings