The snowstorm hitting the Northeast Thursday may be child’s play for Boston at this point but Metro’s sister cities to the south — New York and Philly — ain’t feeling it. The morning news shows have New Yorkers, egged on by weather-crazed street reporters, boo-hooing that they can’t take it anymore.
Every once in awhile, they’ll show someone who goes off the panic-in-the-streets reservation.
“It’s winter,” said one such sage. “Usually we’ll get hit by one last storm in March and then by the end of the month, it’s gone.”
Yep. It’s called, “In like a Lion, out like a Lamb.”
I learned that in, like, first grade. But I digress.
Here’s the expected accumulations, say the good folks at The Weather Channel:
PHILLY: 3-5”” The winter storm warning ends at 7 p.m. And then it’s smooth sailing, sunny, and cold starting Friday and through much of the weekend.
In Philly and the further south you go in Jersey, things are messier.
Speed limits have been reduced on bridges, like the Benjamin Franklin, Betsy Ross, Commodore Barry and Walt Whitman bridges, to 35 mph. The Jersey Turnpike has reduced the speed limit to 45 mph.
Public and parochial schools are closed in the City of Brotherly Love and in much of Jersey. A full list is here, on the local CBS website. NYC public schools are opened but many suburban districts shut. See local CBS’s website for a full list. NY1 reports there is some debate among parents whether today should have been a snow day.
NYC: 5-8”
BOSTON: Less than 1”
Parents at PS 254 in Sheepshead Bay are sharply divided over whether today should have been a snow day. pic.twitter.com/d3RV9ioY8l
— Lindsey Christ (@LindseyChrist) March 5, 2015
Hundreds of flights are also canceled in both cities and in Newark.
In NYC, the wintry mess has contributed to more manhole fires — 13 alone this morning in Brooklyn
The briny melt from city streets in storm-after-storm — and rats — eat at below ground wiring, causing arcing that ignites sewer gases, ConEd explains.
An apartment building was evacuated in Manhattan, in Chelsea, early Tuesday evening when a manhole fire erupted at 23rd Street and Seventh Avenue.
Back up in Boston, a different phenomenon is now in play.
The snow-trounced city has accumulated 105.5 inches this winter. The record, set in the 1995-96 winter is 107.6 inches.
Some now are routing for the record.
@jreineron7 have folks already given up? We’ve got more than a month of snow potential. We’ll take the crown. Don’t stop believin’! #BOSnow
— Mike Spinney (@spinzo) March 4, 2015
‘‘I want the record. We earned the record,’’ Erin O’Brien, a UMass poli-sci professor tells the Associated Press.
But there’s bad news for her and others dreaming of the record.
‘‘Elusive is a good word,’’ says the National Weather Service’s Bill Simpson. ‘‘We’re no longer in that superactive pattern. We quiet down after (Thursday) so there are no guarantees.’ AP notes that many have taken to social media to keep hope alive.
‘‘Have folks already given up? We’ve got more than a month of snow potential. We’ll take the crown. Don’t stop believin’,’’ public relations executive Mike Spinney said on Twitter.
