Weather

Thousands in New England Without Power After Heavy Rain, Snow, and Wind Lash Region

By midday we’ve already had close to a foot of snow in the highest elevations of western Massachusetts and southern Vermont, and that heavy snow continues to push toward the north and east.

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A storm lashed parts of New England on Saturday with heavy rain, snow and wind, leading to power outages and slick roads. More than 15,000 homes and businesses were without electricity in Vermont, the hardest-hit state, but outages were reported across the region, officials said, as the heavy, wet snow accumulated on trees and powerlines in the higher elevations of western and northern New England.

"The snow is wet, heavy and slippery, which makes travel and restoration conditions tough," said Mike Burke, chief of field operations at Green Mountain Power in Vermont.

A foot or more of snow was possible across higher elevations of northern New England, and wind gusts as high as 50 to 60 mph were forecast along the Maine coast, said Michael Clair, of the National Weather Service in Maine.

Locations that didn't get snow could see 1 1/2 to 2 inches of rain, Clair said.

The storm responsible for the snow, wind, and more than two inches of rain in parts of southern New England is slowly tracking up Interstate 93 toward the north this afternoon.

Central pressure on this storm is bottoming out below 29.25 inches. It’s a powerful system and it's going to have an impact going forward for a couple of days, but more in the wind department than anything else.

The rain is pretty much done other than a few showers in southern New England this afternoon with temperatures close to 50 degrees for a time before falling back into the 40s, as winds increase from the southwest to 20 to 30 mph.

The heaviest wind this afternoon is along the New Hampshire and Maine seacoast with erosion and minor flooding in the early afternoon high tide due to wind from the southeast gusting past 50 mph.

By midday we’ve already had close to a foot of snow in the highest elevations of western Massachusetts and southern Vermont, and that heavy snow continues to push toward the north and east.

It’s highly elevation dependent with most of the valley areas reporting rain and mountains getting a passing snowstorm. More power outages can be expected north of a line roughly from Rutland, Vermont, to Conway, New Hampshire, to Millinocket, Maine.

The storm is going to stall out over southeastern Canada Sunday with sunshine returning south and east. Overnight low temperatures should stay above freezing in southern New England and right around freezing in northern New England with icy roads continuing.

Our Sunday features a windy day with a mixture of sun and clouds. We should be dry on the coast but on the west side of the mountains it’s going to continue to snow.

Total snowfall amounts on the spine of the green mountains of Vermont, to the presidential range of New Hampshire will be in excess of 15 inches. However it will be a much drier snow for Sunday, so further power outages are not expected to be an issue.

There's little change for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday, with blustery weather and sunshine near the coast, and mountain snow continuing.

The freezing weather returns to southern New England Monday night and Tuesday. At the same time a wave of low pressure crosses Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine with another dose of snow in the far north. That snow may reach the south coast early Wednesday. It’ll be windy and cold Wednesday with temperatures mostly in the 20s.

Another wave of low pressure may ripple through on Thursday with a chance of rain or snow near the shore and more snow inland and at the higher elevations.

It’s a very busy -- and decidedly more wintry -- First Alert 10-day forecast.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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