Storm Update: Heavy Snow Arrives

Updated Monday 9:10 a.m.

Snow has arrived in Rhode Island and the snowfall rate is picking up.

Flakes arrived a little later than expected and streets were mostly clear at around 7 a.m. but conditions have quickly deteriorated.

Check out Griswold Street in Bristol as of 9 a.m.:

The heaviest accumulations will be along southeastern Massachusetts and the Cape and Islands were a foot or more is possible. In Rhode Island, totals will be be higher from east to west, ranging from 4- to 10-inches or more in isolated areas.

One major concern is wind. The National Weather Service indicates that gusts will approach 50 mph during the day.

The heaviest snowfall will be in the morning into the afternoon.

Power outages once again are a primary concern. A total of 130 National Grid customers in Rhode Island are currently without power, more than half (77) in Coventry, which was hit hard by the Friday snowstorm by fallen tree limbs and downed power lines.

Want to share a snow pic? Insight about the storm? Comment on a town’s good or bad plowing job? Send them to mark.schieldrop@patch.com and this story will be updated through the storm.

Updated: 9:53 p.m.

Schools across Rhode Island will be closed Monday and services will grind to a halt as a significant winter storm is expected to deliver anywhere from 4-inches to a foot of snow starting early in the morning.

The National Weather Service upgraded an earlier Winter Storm Watch to a Warning on Sunday afternoon as computer models continued to show a westward drift as the storm approaches Rhode Island. That means snowfall estimates have been increased as well.

Snow will be heavy at times and visibility will be poor. Blizzard conditions are possible, especially to the east, according to the weather service.

------> Complete list of closings and cancellations.

The state emergency operation’s center will be monitoring the situation starting Monday morning, according to Rhode Island Emergency Management Director Peter Gaynor.

There is a strong possibility there will be power outages as a result of the storm due to downed power lines and tree limbs. That was the story all weekend after wet, heavy snow on Friday knocked out power to more than 120,000 National Grid customers across Rhode Island and Massachusetts. More than 2,000 were still without power on Sunday morning.

“Additionally, we expect to see additional power outages stemming from this winter storm due to anticipated heavy wet snow and gusting winds. As a result, National Grid will have additional crews ready to respond to any power outages that may occur throughout the state,” Gaynor said.

Travel will be treacherous during the morning commute on Monday, though traffic should be light thanks to school being cancelled across the state and many businesses telling employees to stay home for the day.

As of Sunday morning, the National Grid said that 97 percent of the 149,000 people who lost power in Massachusetts and Rhode Island had power restored and the lingering pockets of outages are being addressed Sunday.

With more snow coming Monday, National Grid said that they’re already planning for another round of outages and crews that have been dispatched to help restoration efforts will stay in place.

“We will continue to work until the very last customer has service and we are well prepared for the next storm heading our way. We already have crews on hand, which will help greatly if they are needed for Monday’s storm,” said Dan Bunszell, National Grid vice president of New England Operations.

Bunszell said that the damage to the electric system from Friday’s storm was “very severe” and “some of the outages required as much as six or eight hours to repair because we had to replace poles and basically rebuild small sections of the system.”

Many outages were in rural and heavily-wooded communities. Coventry, for example, was hit particularly hard by outages caused by fallen limbs and some areas were difficult for crews to reach because of blocked private roads.

The National Weather Service is predicting that snow should begin early Monday morning at around 3 a.m. The morning commute could be downright nasty as the heaviest is expected to fall starting around 7 a.m.

Snow will taper off not until around 7 p.m., which means that daytime travel is something to avoid, if possible.

Check out the National Weather Service on Twitter below: