SOMERVILLE DECLARES SNOW EMERGENCY EFFECTIVE 3 PM SAT 1/10

[somerville311.livejournal.com]

In accordance with the City’s Snow Emergency Procedures, Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone has declared a snow emergency for the City of Somerville to go into effect at 3 p.m. Saturday, January 10th, 2009. During snow emergencies, parking is allowed on the odd-numbered side of the street only (unless otherwise posted).  Cars not moved by 7 p.m. Saturday will be subject to ticketing and towing.  Beginning at 3 p.m. on Saturday, January 10th, residents unable to find a parking space on the odd-numbered side of the street may park in any municipal or school parking lot for the duration of the emergency.  A list of available city lots and other relevant information may be found on the City’s website at www.somervillema.gov

Residents who have not already done so may visit the City’s website to view snow emergency procedures, download the snow procedures brochure or sign up for Connect CTY telephone and email alerts and other time sensitive messages from the City. Residents may also sign up for Connect CTY calls and email by calling 311.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

Perhaps.

But the National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning, and I think it would be hard for Somerville not to declare a snow emergency in the face of a NWS warning.

Is the National Weather Service more "twitchy" this year? I don't know.

But then again, we have already had more storms that meet the fixed NWS definition of a winter storm than for the past few years.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I think the declarations have been appropriate and in line with policy, but our fair City has certainly been more proactive about it than our neighbors. For example, Cambridge has declared an emergency today as well, but their parking ban doesn't go into effect until 10pm, which seems to make sense given the forecast timing, and Boston hasn't declared at all yet.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

The NWS warning goes into effect at 6pm. I've noticed that Somerville seems to fairly consistently put their emergencies into effect 3 hours before the NWS warning. So that may be why there's the emergency before the sky even clouds over.

Of course, the NWS warning goes into effect n hours before they expect snow to start falling, so when all is said and done, the flakes may not even begin for 6 hours after the Somerville emergency goes into effect...

Be prepared, I guess...

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

The timing of the Somerville snow emergencies is based on getting the cars off the street before the snow starts. i.e. the towing goes into effect just before the snow starts.

They made the tentative robo-call at 10:30-11 am, emergency goes into effect at 3, towing starts at 7, forecasters expect the snow to start at 8.