BOSTON — Just when flowering bulbs were poking out their heads and snow shovels were getting a well-deserved rest, winter weather has returned. And on the first day of spring no less.
Forecasters say a storm will dump up to 6 inches of snow on the Northeast and mid-Atlantic on Friday. New England will be on the lower end of the snow totals but even Boston, which has seen a record 108.6 inches of snow, could get an inch or more.
In typical regional fashion, New Englanders said they’re tired of cold and snow, but they’ll deal.
“I’m sick of it,” said Donna Bohan, 52, a lifelong South Boston resident. “I want to not have to wear my boots, and I want to be able to take a nice walk. But we can handle a bit more. We’re New Englanders. We’re tough.”
A few locations, particularly in the higher elevations, could see much more of the white stuff, said meteorologist Bruce Terry of the National Weather Service. South central Pennsylvania will be in the bulls-eye of the storm and receive up to 10 inches of snow, he said Thursday. Western Maryland could get slammed with up to 8 inches.
Terry said New York City is expected to get 4 to 6 inches of wet snow. South-facing coastal areas in New England could get a few inches as well.
“It doesn’t matter. We’ve had so much snow already. It’s supposed to hit 50 degrees tomorrow, so it’s almost over,” said Keith Maxwell, a heating system mechanic from Brockton, Massachusetts.
Some areas also will see rain.
The threat of more snow didn’t scare away some visitors to Boston.
“An inch isn’t going to stop us from coming to the (New England) Aquarium,” said Sara Wright, 77, visiting from Northampton, Massachusetts, with her daughter and two grandsons.
Still, she was ready for spring.
“I find this winter has been so tiresome,” she said. “I don’t remember a winter like this.”
A little more snow couldn’t discourage the Chisling family of Dover, New Hampshire, either.
“We’ve had so much snow, what’s a little more on top of that?” said Aaron Chisling, visiting Boston with his wife, Amanda, and their 11/2-year-old daughter.
Besides, the Chislings drive a four-wheel drive vehicle, Amanda pointed out.
Julianne Ferullo, a real estate agent from Whitman, Massachusetts, said she is not fazed by the thought of more snow on the first day of spring, but her 10-year-old daughter is worried about an upcoming camping trip in July.
“It’s been so long, I think I’m numb to it. Someday, the snow will stop,” Ferullo said.
By Saturday, it will be in the 40s in the Northeast and in the 50s in the mid-Atlantic, but temperatures are expected to drop again early next week, said Kim Buttrick, a meteorologist with the weather service in Taunton, Massachusetts.
“I would say that the extreme cold that we have been having is an anomaly for this time of year,” she said.
Meteorologist Ryan Maue, of Weather Bell Analytics, warned that spring might take a while to fully win out. Temperatures will remain unseasonably cool into next week, and another system with snow potential is headed for the Midwest, he said.
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