Boston Breaks Its Record For Snowiest Winter
BOSTON (CBS) -- For better or worse, Sunday's snowfall has secured this winter a place in history.
This winter is officially Boston's snowiest on record, according to the National Weather Service.
By 7p.m. Sunday, an estimated total of 108.6 inches of snowfall was recorded in the city this season.
Unfortunately, there will be no official celebration of this particular milestone.
The previous all-time record of 107.6 inches set in the winter of 1995-96.
This is only the second time that Boston has seen more than 100 inches of snow in a season.
Last week, Mayor Marty Walsh told WBZ NewsRadio's Dan Rea that the cost of removing the thousands of truckloads of snow from Boston this winter is expected to reach $50 million – well more than double what the city planned for this year.
"We budgeted about $18 million," Walsh said. "We're probably at about $45 million that we've paid on snow removal, probably going to head toward $50 million."
This season's previous total of 105.7 inches had cost the regional economy an estimated $1 billion and crippled public transportation.
Just how hard is it to get rid of nearly 9 feet of snow? According to Walsh, the city had already cleared 1 billion cubic feet of snow, which is double the amount of dirt removed from the Big Dig project over a 15-year period.
"We've taken 30,000 truckloads of snow off the street, we've melted over 50,000 tons of snow," he said. "We've plowed 263,000 miles of roadway."
Walsh said he's hoping there are lessons to be learned from a historically harsh winter.
"We're looking at how do we remove snow in the city of Boston, particularly snow like this," he said. "Some of those ideas that we've learned we'll be able to use and hopefully save money next year as far as snow removal goes."
Warmer temperatures last week also revealed a massive amount of litter across the city. Officials said the garbage may not be completely cleaned until mid-May.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Karen Twomey reports: