Seasons collided in New England Friday, as a spring storm brought enough snow to make many communities break out their plows.
Slushy conditions were widespread and some places got some six inches of accumulation, making roads a mess. There was more hazardous weather in store Friday night -- as the storm moved out, high winds were expected in part of the area, threatening power outages -- there were about 2,500 outages in Massachusetts about 7:15 p.m.
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Some schools in the region canceled classes or opted for remote learning due to the weather.
Steady rain transitioned to snow Friday morning in Boston as colder air moved in. Central Massachusetts seemed to get the snow jackpot, outside of the higher elevations of northern New England. In Gardner, people were taking the unseasonal storm in stride.
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"It was beautiful coming to work today, seeing the snow on the trees. Did I like shoveling? No," said Mary Willoughby, owner of O'Neil's Bicycle Shop.
The weather was being driven in part by a storm system off Nantucket, according to our forecast. Precipitation was expected to end by Saturday, with weather nearing 70 by Tuesday.
Winter weather warnings or advisories were posted for large swaths of Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts. The storm was expected to linger in some areas into Friday evening. The areas around Providence, Rhode Island, and Hartford, Connecticut, were getting mostly heavy rain and wind on Friday.
Some interior areas could get as much as 10 inches of snow, the National Weather Service warned in the morning.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation had 367 pieces of equipment on the roads helping to deal with the ice and snow at noon.
Snow was falling in Fitchburg, where residents woke up to a dusting on the ground. The higher elevations saw even more snow, but plowable amounts did not accumulate in the morning.
The snow wasn't sticking to the roadways in all areas, but the precipitation made for a slippery morning drive and some crashes were reported across the region.
Gardner was blanketed by about a half a foot of snow by mid-day Friday.
“This is awful, [I'm] so over winter,” said Danielle Clowes of Gardner.
“This is weird! I already took my plow off a long time ago, pulled all the rakes out. Now I don’t need them," added Don Burgess of Templeton.
Many in northern Worcester County found out the hard way that Mother Nature wasn’t bluffing this time around.
Alexa Perizolotis of Littleton said, “If I’m being serious, it’s New England. I was in denial all week and then here it is.”
“They were saying we were going to get snow and I didn’t think it was going to stick -- it’s just been too warm,” said Edward Hoover of Gardner.
The falling flakes covered cars, sat atop the city’s famous giant chair and even led to some fun in the snow for man’s best friend.
“She’d stay out here all day if I’d let her,” said Melissa Locket of Gardner while playing with her dog.
But Locket was not as enamored with the swirling snow.
“This is nuts, I hate it," she said. "It’s time to take a vacation, so I don’t have to deal with it.”
