PROVIDENCE – The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for both Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts until 7 p.m. Thursday, with snow and ice expected for most of the day.
Snow began falling early on Thursday morning and is expected to switch to rain, then sleet before becoming all freezing rain after 2 p.m., affecting the evening commute. About 1 to 3 inches of precipitation is expected across most of Rhode Island, with the higher totals expected in the northern region and lower amounts along the coast.
As of 3 p.m. on Thursday, an inch of snow had fallen on Providence and 1.2 inches was recorded in Warwick. Burrillville had the highest snowfall among municipalities at 1.5 inches, while Woonsocket recorded an inch of snow.
Numerous school districts canceled classes as early as Wednesday evening. However, some districts, such as Bristol-Warren, Central Falls, Cranston, East Providence, Foster-Glocester, Lincoln, North Providence, Pawtucket, Smithfield and Tiverton, switched to remote learning for the day.
Cranston, East Providence, Johnston, Pawtucket and West Warwick all issued parking bans.
Only eight customers were without power as of 3 p.m. Thursday, according to Rhode Island Energy’s power outage map. It was unclear if those outages were storm-related. Representatives from Rhode Island Energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Flights were mostly on schedule as of 3 p.m. Thursday at Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport in Warwick, with only four departures and one arrival canceled.
The National Weather Service on Thursday also issued a statewide Winter Storm Watch for the evening of Feb. 8 into the morning hours of Feb. 9. that could bring up to 6-8 inches of snow across most of Rhode Island.
(UPDATE: Adds snowfall totals in paragraph 3 and Winter Storm Watch information in the final paragraph.)