Winter 2008:  The Year's First Nor'Easter
January 14, 2008

Jan. 14, 2008 -- We were spoiled by the "January Thaw" we enjoyed all of last week with the temperature hitting a high of 62° last Tuesday -- after an Arctic wave of cold had swept down the week before.  At least it melted away the residue of December's triple-whammy for the most part, leaving behind only the big piles of old snow.  This storm was forecasted and came as no surprise, though its arrival was somewhat of a disappointment with the feel of spring almost in the air.  But, this is after all still January in New England with February still ahead.

The first storm of 2008 dumped 8 to 14 inches of snow across Massachusetts yesterday and packed powerful winds that toppled trees, knocked out power to 45,000 homes and created frustrating travel delays for countless commuters.

At times, the early-morning nor’easter smacked Boston and its suburbs with blinding gusts of snow, leaving the largest accumulations north and west of the city. It forced 600 schools to cancel classes, and Boston officials said they towed more than 450 cars to clear the streets for plows.

Still, the storm did not paralyze the region like last month’s icy downburst, when tens of thousands of motorists were trapped on unplowed state highways for six hours and longer after Gov. Deval Patrick’s call for state and private employees to leave work early put everyone on the road at the same time.

Yesterday, city and state officials urged workers to stay put or use public transportation. The storm was gone by 1 p.m., leaving the region with a blanket of snow that created irritation, but not chaos.

“It could have been worse, but a lot of people used the T and stayed off the roads,” said Peter Judge, spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency. By sundown, he said, power outages were down to about 27,000, with large concentrations in Walpole and Springfield.

There were no reports of fatalities or serious injuries. State police fielded continual reports of spinouts, including a Logan Express bus that lost control on Interstate 93 north in Medford, but there were no large-scale emergencies.

In Boston, Mayor Thomas M. Menino mandated all nonessential employees to stay home and canceled school. He declared a snow emergency that forced residents to move their cars from major thoroughfares. Those who did not were ticketed or towed. At last count, officials said more than 3,060 tickets had been issued, each one carrying a $35 fine.

Some who ventured into town found plenty of trouble on commuter rail trains and MBTA buses. Toppled trees accounted for most of the headaches, blocking commuter trains in Gloucester and Dedham, disabling trolley service in Mattapan, obstructing the Green Line for two hours in Boston and knocking out trackless trolley service in Cambridge, officials said.

On the Haverhill branch of the commuter rail, passengers were delayed by as much as two hours by disabled trains, but MBTA officials said most train delays were less than 30 minutes and affected less than 20 of the 250 morning trips.

The snow proved problematic for airline travelers, with hundreds of flights canceled at Logan International Airport, where officials were at times down to a single runway, according to the Massachusetts Port Authority.