Boston schools close as snow heads toward city

Anticipating as many as 8 inches of snow, Mayor Marty Walsh announced Thursday night that all Boston Public Schools would be closed for the day Friday.

“With expected accumulations of four to eight inches over the next 22 hours, we are acting out of an abundance of caution for the safety of our residents, especially our children,” Walsh said in a statement.

“Our Office of Emergency Management will continue to monitor the storm throughout its duration. I’m asking residents to remain vigilant during this snow event and keep an eye out for our neighbors, especially our seniors during this time.”

This storm has been handled badly by all of the computer models, as it was suppose to pass harmlessly out to sea. However, over the past 18-24 hours, a significant shift to the west in the storm track, along with a more intense system, has caught us off-guard.

The biggest impact today will be for southern New England, where the rain will be changing over to heavy wet snow with Boston possibly receiving as much as 4-8 inches before the storm pulls away later in the day. The Capes could see over 6 inches as well and the combination of the heavy, wet snow and strong winds will lead to scattered power outages.

Philadelphia and New York city should see a slushy mess as the overnight rain changes to morning snow. Roadways could become covered as the snow intensity reaches its maximum during your morning commute.

Eastern New Jersey will be closer towards the storm center and this should lead to higher amounts of snow in all locations across eastern New Jersey, except along the shore points, where plenty of mixing will take place.

Philly could receive about 1-3 inches of snow, especially on grassy surfaces, with higher amounts to the east of I-95. The saving grace with this storm is that it is a quick mover and this will keep snow amounts limited across Philly and NYC, where the sun will return by Friday afternoon.

Uncertainties remain in the forecast for early next week.

SpencerBuellcontributed to this report.