Snow

A two part weather system over the next twenty-four hours will bridge leap day and March. Snow and rain will start the new month more like a lion than a lamb. Part one, a burst of precipitation for late this afternoon and overnight, mostly in the form of snow. We are right on the rain-snow line with this event so accumulations will differ greatly depending on your exact location. This is not going to be a storm where everyone ends up with the same amounts. There will be a big difference in snow totals over very short distances.

Last winter's lack of snow is about to pay off for Gate City pedestrians. Mayor Donnalee Lozeau has decided to use about $400,000 in snow removal surplus to repair city sidewalks. Work is already underway on the Main Street bridge, where the brick sidewalks have cracked and crumbled to create what looks like permanent frost heaves. Most of the sidewalk work will be done by Public Works employees.

For the third time this week, snowplows will hit the streets of Boston tomorrow morning, according to the National Weather Service. Through early this morning, 1.5 inches of snow fell in East Boston and 1 inch was measured in South Boston. The most snow in the state was measured in Bridgewater, with 5 inches. Bristol County also reported several towns got at least 4 inches of the white stuff. Meteorologist Alan Dunham said the snow on the ground will stick for a few days.

Lynn Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy said today the city has changed its rules and will no longer allow money set aside for snow removal to be used to pay the salaries of workers in the city's Department of Public Works. The mayor was reacting to news accounts in the Lynn Item that showed the city's snow removal budget was drained of hundreds of thousands of dollars after a mostly snow-free winter. In the statement, the mayor said the rules were changed for fiscal 2013 so the spending does not take place again.

A weekend storm started blanketing the Northeast with a few inches of snow this morning, creating slippery conditions and some delays at airports, though the storm was expected to move out to sea overnight. Up to 7 inches was predicted for southeastern Massachusetts, not much by the standards of a New England winter but noteworthy in a season marked by a lack of snow. The National Weather Service predicted 4 to 6 inches in New York City before the snow stops in the afternoon.

The Board of Selectmen voted 4-1 Monday to allocate the majority of a $600,000 balance in this year's snow and ice budget toward various purchases, some which were scheduled to be acquired with bonds. Of the total balance, $300,000 was earmarked to purchase a dump truck and a loader, $165,000 for a street sweeper, $50,000 for a federally mandated inventory of road signs, and $15,000 for computerized maintenance management software that would allow residents and department heads to use their personal computers or handheld devices to report problems such as potholes directly into a work order system, said Town...

New England Boston 23% Concord, N.H. 87% Hartford 57% Portland, Maine 83% Providence 37% Elsewhere Anchorage 90% Boise, Idaho 30% Charleston, W.Va. 30% Chicago 40% Cleveland 60% Denver 50% Detroit 50% Fairbanks, Alaska 100% Indianapolis 30% Louisville, Ky. 13% Milwaukee 60% Minneapolis 73% Nashville 13% Newark, N.J. 23% New York 10% Philadelphia 10% Pittsburgh 33% Reno, Nev. 20% St. Louis 23% Washington, D.C. 13%

Forecasters predicted this morning that a coating of light, fluffy snow would begin to blanket the region this evening. However, this afternoon brought light snow squalls hours before the predicted start time. Matthew Belkcq, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Tauntoncq, said the squalls were nothing more than ocean effect snow. "That was a separate event," Belk said. "It isn't expected to accumulate much at all. The system we're expecting overnight hasn't even made it through central New York yet. " Belk said ocean effect snow occurs when a cold air mass sits...

Snow and rain is now breaking to our south. This area will move to the northeast and then gain some strength as it heads up the coastline Saturday. This will be a very small event for the region. The biggest impact will be that your Saturday errands may be slowed a bit by the slippery roads. The storm should gain most of its strength as it heads towards the Canadian Maritime region. Downeast Maine could see a significant snowfall later Saturday if the storm comes close to them on its way to Canada.

It seems hard to believe, but only three weeks ago, there was still some trace of snow in Tuckerman Ravine, and some folks even took advantage of it for some July skiing . Alas, any snow is now certainly long gone from Mount Washington and every other peak in New England, so you'll have to head west in order to find any. Despite the heat wave gripping the entire country, Colorado's Keystone Ski Resort has managed to...

Sunbathing one day, snowstorm the next: Bosnians are getting whiplash from the latest crazy weather to hit the Balkans. Weeks after Bosnians had stashed away their winter clothes and their memories of last winter's unbearably heavy snow, residents had to drag out the shovels Monday after waking up to a blanket of snow in the middle of an otherwise unusually hot May. Some 50 remote villages in a mountainous area near the Bosnian capital of...

The political polarization in Washington can be diminished, but only when Americans support candidates who follow the principles of consensus-building, U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe told graduates during a commencement speech Saturday. Snowe delivered what will likely be her final commencement address as a senator at the University of Southern Maine graduation ceremony. Congress has an obligation to "set America on the right course," and the public has a right to demand that government work on their behalf, Snowe said at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

AUGUSTA, Maine - Maine's retiring US senator, Olympia Snowe, made only a passing reference to her frustration with the polarization of Congress, which is driving her from office, during a farewell speech Sunday to a sharply divided Republican state convention. Snowe, who has represented Maine in the US House and Senate for more than three decades, also thanked Maine Republicans for their support over the years. Her husband, a former Maine governor and congressman, John "Jock" McKernan, sat near her as Snowe spoke.

Maine's retiring U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe made only a passing reference to her frustration with polarization of Congress that's driving her from office during a farewell speech Sunday to a sharply divided Republican state convention. Snowe, who has represented Maine in the U.S. House and Senate for more than three decades, also thanked Maine Republicans for their support over the years. Her husband, former Maine governor and congressman John "Jock" McKernan, sat near her as Snowe spoke.

The Board of Selectmen voted 4-1 Monday to allocate the majority of a $600,000 balance in this year's snow and ice budget toward various purchases, some which were scheduled to be acquired with bonds. Of the total balance, $300,000 was earmarked to purchase a dump truck and a loader, $165,000 for a street sweeper, $50,000 for a federally mandated inventory of road signs, and $15,000 for computerized maintenance management software that would allow residents and department heads to use their personal computers or handheld devices to report problems such as potholes directly into a...

Nothing matched the excitement of going to bed on a school night when there was a wicked good snow falling and you knew there was a possibility that, when you awoke, so much snow had accumulated there'd be NO SCHOOL! Sleep would be fitful with the sound of snowplows scraping and rumbling along the whitened streets. You'd hope like hell the plows couldn't keep up with the snow so town officials — in their infinite protective wisdom — would deem school attendance the next day unsafe.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina - Bosnia used helicopters on Sunday to evacuate the sick and deliver food to thousands of people left stranded by its heaviest snowfall ever. Across Eastern Europe, people continued to dig out from heavy snow, which fell during a cold snap more than a week ago. The severe weather has killed hundreds of people, cut power, and snarled transportation. In Ukraine, the hardest hit area, temperatures have fallen as low as minus-33. The government said yesterday that the country's death toll stands at 131, many of them homeless people.

BUFFALO - A late-April northeaster unleashed a burst of winter in parts of New York and Pennsylvania on Monday, closing some schools and triggering power outages in communities that were basking in record warmth a month ago. Snow-laden tree limbs pulled down power lines, and commuters navigated slushy roads to get to work and school. Up to a foot of snow or more was forecast for higher elevations through Tuesday morning. At the peak of the storm Monday, utilities reported about 50,000 customers without power in Pennsylvania and central and western New York.

Warm winters like the one that just passed are likely to become more frequent as the planet heats up, scientists predict, and many of the consequences could be dire, from rising sea levels to droughts to the spread of pests and diseases. But in the lesser-noted ledger of global warming, there are also potential benefits for wildlife. Among the potential beneficiaries is the New England cottontail, an endangered brown rabbit that, in a typical winter, stands out against the snow, making it an easy target for predators.