North Shore Snow Burst: 'Stay Off The Roads If Possible'

BEVERLY, MA — Driving conditions deteriorated quickly on the North Shore Monday afternoon as a burst of snow hit the region ahead of the afternoon commute.

"We are responding to multiple crashes at this time," Beverly Police Chief John LeLacheur posted on social media at about 3:15 p.m. "Please stay off the roads if possible. If you have to drive please reduce your speed and increase your distance."

A city-wide emergency parking ban in Peabody was called effective at 4 p.m. until further notice. Residents were advised to remove all parked cars from public roads to allow for safe and effective snowplow operations.

Salem issued this advisory at 4:30 p.m.: "The City of Salem does not have a parking ban at this time. However, we are encouraging all to please avoid travel (especially on roads) so as to allow our crews to continue treatment and mitigation."

The Danvers Department of Public Works said its trash and recycling collection was halted as of about 3:45 p.m. Residents whose trash had yet to be picked up for the day were asked to pull it back in for the night and then place it back out by 7 a.m. on Tuesday.

Essex Tech closed early on Monday, while most other school districts canceled all after-school sports, extracurricular activities and meetings.

The storm, which brought mostly rain to Eastern Mass. Sunday night into Monday morning, was forecast to switch to snow Monday afternoon with bands of heavy wet snow moving through until early evening.

The timing of the changeover made it difficult for the schools that did let out at their regularly scheduled time and those heading home from work during the evening rush hour.

"MassDOT advises drivers to get updated forecasts for travel late Monday and Monday night as a wintry mix of rain and snow will impact travel, especially on any untreated roadways," the state transportation agency said in a travel advisory Monday morning.

More than 23,000 Massachusetts residents were without power as of 5:30 p.m. with most of the outages in the North Central part of the state where combined snowfall from Sunday night and Monday was up to 8 inches.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)