Yes, it was officially blizzard. And now time to dig out, get the lights back on

Weather officials say Saturday's long-duration nor'easter came as advertised, noting it was officially declared a blizzard.

"Blizzard conditions were reached at several locations across Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts," the National Weather Service said.

The official definition of a blizzard is that falling and/or blowing snow reduces visibility to less than a quarter-mile, along with winds that frequently gust to 35 mph or higher. Further, these conditions must be the "predominantly reported condition" for at least three consecutive hours, the Weather Service said.

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Check, check and check.

Bradley Rhoton, of Framingham, shovels snow from his Millwood Street driveway during the snowstorm, Jan. 29, 2022.
Bradley Rhoton, of Framingham, shovels snow from his Millwood Street driveway during the snowstorm, Jan. 29, 2022.

Who got the most snow?

Heavy snowfall, whiteout conditions and thrashing winds swept through most of Massachusetts and all of Rhode Island throughout Saturday, with the National Weather Service forecasting up to 24 inches of snow for some communities.

In addition, coastal communities faced a powerful bomb cyclone in the form of a punishing mix of strong winds, heavy snow, power outages and some flooding.

From Cape Ann to Cape Cod, waves crashed over seawalls and swelled harbors, creating some street flooding. On the Cape, high winds blew a biting mix of ice, sand and wet snow.

The NWS wasn't expected to have final snowfall figures until later on Sunday, according to Rob Megnia, a meteorologist with the service who spoke with the Daily News at midday on Saturday.

"It's coming down pretty good right now," he said at the time.

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But by Saturday night, some communities had already accumulated 2 feet of snow, including Bridgewater. Natick topped local communities with the most amount of snow by that time (20 inches), followed by Northbridge (19) and Franklin (18).

More than 3,000 pieces of equipment were used by the state to clear the snow, according to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, with drivers urged to stay off roads as plows cleared them.

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A front-end loader creates a mountain of snow in the Shaw's Plaza parking lot in Sudbury during Saturday's winter storm, Jan. 29, 2022.
A front-end loader creates a mountain of snow in the Shaw's Plaza parking lot in Sudbury during Saturday's winter storm, Jan. 29, 2022.

Restoring power outages

Cleanup efforts came next on a sunny but cold Sunday.

In a statement, officials at Eversource said they have "strategically dispatched" more than 1,000 line and tree crews to restore power outages caused by the storm. Additional crews were expected from Connecticut and New Hampshire to support restoration efforts that started even as the storm continued to rage late Saturday afternoon.

The southeastern part of the state was hammered with power outages earlier in the day — including all of Provincetown. But locally, Franklin (a little over 200 customers) was the only community to sustain significant losses of electricity.

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By 9 p.m. Saturday, no MetroWest or Greater Milford community was reported by the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency to have customers without power. The final 24, all in Natick, were restored moments before.

There was still plenty of work to do elsewhere, however.

In a statement late Saturday, Eversource Vice President for Electric Operations Bill Ritchie said strong winds late Saturday deterred crews from going up in buckets to make repairs, and hazardous road conditions slowed access to trouble spots.

"We appreciate our customers’ patience as we focus on maintaining safety, and we will not stop until every last customer has been restored,” he said.

Road conditions

The report of a fatal automobile accident that occurred during the early stages of the storm — about 2:30 a.m. Saturday — on Interstate 93 in Boston appeared to be an isolated incident.

Several local police departments reported no accidents as of late Saturday afternoon, though there were some reports of a few disabled motor vehicles in Westborough, according to a police dispatcher in that town.

"Calls for service have been pretty quiet — everybody for the most part is staying off the roads," said Medway Town Manager Michael Boynton, who was tracking the storm with other town officials on Saturday from Town Hall.

Several communities enacted parking bans to allow for plows driving thorough. In Framingham, a snow emergency parking ban on all arterial roads went into effect at 6 a.m. Saturday and lasted until 6 a.m. Monday.

WCVB-TV contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: MA blizzard aftermath: Power outages; digging out of two feet of snow