A wind-whipped snowy, rainy nor’easter spawned dozens of spinouts and a least one jack-knifed trailer on the state’s treacherous roadways while downed trees and limbs sparked local power outages and cause other complications.
Speed limits on highways in the western and central parts of the state remain set at 40 miles an hours as the nor’easter continues to roar across the state.
Power outages total 27,787 at about 9:30 this morning, according to the outage map compiled by the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.
MassHighway reports that over a 1,000 pieces of snow and ice equipment is out scraping the highways with many times more that number deployed by cities and towns.
A downed tree has blocked the tracks on the Mattapan Trolley. MBTA crews are working to clear the mess from the tracks near Cedar Grove. While they work, shuttle buses are in place between Ashmont and Mattapan.
The whipping winds have also prompted the MBTA to cancel morning ferry services. The T said it expects to have the boats running again around noon.
The Massachusetts State Police reported responding to scores of spinouts on Routes 90, 290, 90, 9, and 495 in a post overnight.
“If you do not need to be on the roadways, avoid doing so,” State Police advised.
The National Weather Service, in an update posted this morning, said the rain, sleet and snow, along with gusty winds will be winding down through the day.
“It will feel more like early February today rather than early April with temps in the mid 30s, and wind chill values in the mid 20s,” the agency said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Wind gusts across the state consistently hit marks above 40 miles an hour and into the 60s at locations on the coastline.
A Revere Beach observer registered a gust a 60 miles per hour, according to the weather service, and the wind sock flapped in 55 mile an hour gusts recorded at Logan Airport.
Snow and sleet totals ranged between 1-2 inches in most parts of the state, with higher totals out west and in Central Mass.
An 8 inch reading was recorded in Hawley, in Franklin County. Ashburnham, Hubbardston and Lunenburg, all in Worcester County, each recorded measures over 4 inches, according to weather observations compiled by the National Weather Service.
— Developing