MA officials warn of 'fast moving, high impact' storm, urge residents to stay home

BOSTON — Winter storm Stella is set to dump over a foot of snow across the Commonwealth Tuesday and Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker urged residents to stay home.

"It will start very quickly," Gov. Baker said.

Emphasizing the atypical forecast, Baker noted the snow would begin and quickly get heavy, dropping 2-4 inches per hour. He said that would make traveling during the storm dangerous.

"This is a fast moving, high impact event," Mass. Highway Administrator Tom Tinlin said.

"The rapid rate of snowfall" is what Baker pointed to for most of the issues that will be associated with the storm.

"This thing is going to hit hard when it lands...but we don't think it rises to the level of a travel ban," Baker said.

HIGHWAY

Baker said MassDOT will not open the HOV lane on I-93 and urged anyone who must go out to use public transportation.

You can check road conditions here.

MBTA

The MBTA train lines are preparing to run on schedule, but will shut down the Mattapan line Monday night.

You can check MBTA.com/winter for real time service updates.

POWER OUTAGES

Officials said there is a high likelihood for outages because of the snow/rain mix and the pace of the storm.

Here's who to call if your power goes out:

• Eversource customers: 800-592-2000
• National Grid customers: 800-465-1212
• UNITEL customers: 888-301-7700

You can also find outage maps online.

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Cox Media Group