Weather Alert: Good gentles all, charge your devices [meteo, DC/NYC/MA]

[siderea]

If you live in the BosWash Corridor, especially in NYC-to-Boston, you need to be paying attention to the weather. We have an honest to gosh Nor'easter blizzard predicted for the next 3 days, with heavy wet snow and extremely high winds – the model predicts the damn thing will have an eye – which of course is highly predictive of power outages due to downed lines.

Plug things what need it into electricity while ya got it.

Whiteout conditions expected. The NWS's recommendation for travel is: don't. Followed by recommendations for how to try not to die if you do: "If you must travel, have a winter survival kit with you. If you get stranded, stay with your vehicle."

I would add to that: if you get stranded in your car by snow and need to run the engine for heat, you must also periodically clear the build-up of snow blocking the tailpipe, or the exhaust will back up into the passenger compartment of the car and gas you to death.

As always, for similar reasons do not try to use any form of fire to heat your house if the regular heat goes out, unless you have installed the necessary hardware into the structure of your house, i.e. chimneys, fireplaces, and wood stoves, and they have been sufficiently recently serviced and you know how to operate them safely. The number one killer in blizzards is not the cold, it's the carbon monoxide from people doing dumb shit with hibachis.

NWS says DC to get 2 to 4 inches, NYC/BOS to get 1 to 2 feet. Ryan Hall Y'all reports some models saying up to 5 inches in DC and up to three feet in NYC and BOS.

2026 Feb 21 (5 hrs ago): Ryan Hall Y'all on YT: "The Next 48 Hours Will Be Absolutely WILD...". See particularly from 3:30 re winds.

If somehow you don't already have a preferred regular source of NWS weather alerts – my phone threw up one compliments of Google, and I didn't even know it was authorized to do that – you can see your personal NWS alerts at https://forecast.weather.gov/zipcity.php , just enter your zipcode. Also you should get yourself an app or something.

Comments

[wobblegong]

I don't have to prepare for the full brunt of it but I was surprised the grocery store wasn't a madhouse today. It, as you say, predicts the damn thing will have an eye! Where were my eggmilk breadpaper hordes today?

Crossing everything I have that the storm goes as well and gracefully as it can for you and everyone else in its path. And thank you for the NWS alert site link! (Aughhh, I don't want an app, I want a single webpage I can bookmark!)

[siderea]

Ah, well, there you go!

Mr. Bostoniensis went to the store early today (Saturday) and said it was mostly a ghost town. I speculated it was because everybody tanked up on supplies for previous storms – we certainly did, and the only reason he was out shopping was to pick up a couple stray items that hadn't made it into our grocery delivery earlier in the week.

[goljerp]

I thought the MA thing to do was to stock up on bread, milk, and eggs -- the French Toast panic. (I've been living outside of MA too long - last night I stocked up on organic apples, Brussel sprouts, broccoli, and baby kale.)

[siderea]

We've all gone low carb. (We had scrambled eggs with sausage today.)

[lauradi7dw]

That is odd. The French toast alert for Boston is at 5 slices (ie the max, very much in the red).
https://www.universalhub.com/french-toast

I keep my house at 55 degrees F normally. I am wondering whether to crank it up before the worst of the storm, presuming outages.

[redbird]

Thanks for the Ryan Hall link. I've been keeping an eye on the forecast, but the predicted eye is news to me, and worrying.

[alexxkay]

Thanks for the reminders!

Also, speaking of death-by-gas, if you own a generator, make sure it is *outside*. Lotta people die from those, too.

[weofodthignen]

Stay safe, and warm.

We also need to hope the NWS's predictions are within a useful range of accuracy, and that they get around to sending alerts. They were gutted by DOGE like everything else and around here are for shit.

[siderea]

If the NWS isn't working for your location, and you're in the lower 48, you might want to follow Ryan Hall Y'all on YT.

[weofodthignen]

I was thinking when I read your post, "Who dat?" Will have a look, thanks.

[dianec42]

I'll add to the car advice - If you have an EV and get stranded, run the SEAT HEATERS to keep warm. Minimize your use of the blower as that's very inefficient.