After a January that started out much like the current month, snow surrounded virtually everything on the streets of Boston. (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.org)
BOSTON – Weather forecasters say Bostonians may be in for a significant snowstorm Saturday and Sunday. For those in the city a year ago, it may sound like déjà vu all over again, as Yogi Berra used to say.
Why?
Last year’s succession of blizzards, which dropped a record amount of the white stuff on the region, began with a major storm on Jan. 24.
The onslaught that followed came after a relatively snow-free December and pretty much the same for January up to that point. What followed became a nightmare for pedestrians trying to navigate city sidewalks and roads, commuters, Hub residents with cars parked on streets and public works crews struggling to keep everything going, with notoriously poor results in some cases.
Is the region facing a repeat performance? Of course, there’s no telling at this point. But forecasts Monday evening predicted a storm would work its way up the East Coast and arrive by Jan. 23. And another may be brewing a week later.
Sound familiar?
Current forecasts are still very much up in the air, however.
“If this storm does come into fruition, then we could see the possibility for significant snowfall,” the National Weather Service says on its website. “Strong onshore winds and coastal flooding issues as tides will be astronomically high,” it adds.
Forecasters at WBZ-TV say that the 3 inches that fell in the city Sunday night into Monday morning ended a near-record stretch of almost snowless winter weather for Boston, just below the same period in 2015. Meteorologist Terry Eliasen pointed out that after that benign beginning, about three feet had fallen by the end of the month.
And then came February and March, dumping foot after foot on the city, leaving parked cars looking like igloos, if they could be seen at all, halting trains, subways and streetcars and aggravating a lot of sore backs. Boston ended the year with a record amount of snowfall, more than 110 inches before the end of March.
So while the forecasts now are very iffy, the outlook is for a Nor’easter packing a foot or more of snow for all the major cities in the Northeast, starting late Friday and wrapping up Sunday morning. Buckle up!
After a January that started out much like the current month, snow surrounded virtually everything on the streets of Boston. (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.org) 
