Merrimack Valley

More ice in the forecast

By J.J. Huggins
jhuggins@eagletribune.com
Published: January 6, 2009

Freezing rain is in the forecast again, less than a month after a massive ice storm left hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses throughout the Northeast without power for days.

The good news is that Wednesday's storm is not expected to cause as much icing as the Dec. 11 "Ice Monster."

The bad news is that it will be a wintry mix and a mess to drive in.

"It's going to cause, certainly, travel problems," said National Weather Service meteorologist Kevin Cadima.

Cadima said there should be a total accumulation of three to six inches of snow, which will be "crusty" because it will mix with ice and sleet.

Snow will begin falling late tonight and it will continue into tomorrow morning before changing to sleet and freezing rain in the afternoon. Then, it will switch back to snow that night before the storm passes, Cadima said.

This storm is not shaping up to cause as much damage to utility lines and tree limbs as last month's.

The Merrimack Valley area could receive a quarter inch of ice this time, Cadima said.

"That's not that bad," he said.

By comparison, last month's storm coated the region with about a half inch to three-quarters of an inch of ice, Cadima said.

"That one was a total ice storm, it was all rain with temperatures below freezing," he said.

An estimated 294,000 customers in Massachusetts alone were without power in the immediate aftermath of the storm. Many thousands in Massachusetts and New Hampshire went more than a week without power.

National Grid is closely monitoring the brewing storm, said spokesman David Graves.

"We will have well over 100 crews — our own crews available plus outside contractor crews," he said.

Coincidentally, National Grid was supposed to hold a company meeting this week to critique its response to last month's storm, but it might have to delay it because of the weather, Graves said.

The company critiques its response to every major storm, looking at how it can improve its response time, what it did right and what it did wrong, Graves said.

It took more than a week to return power to everyone in Essex County last month.

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