Wind speeds top 50 miles per hour across Massachusetts Monday
Extremely strong winds whipped across Massachusetts Monday, from the Cape and Islands all the way to the Berkshires, bringing down trees and power lines in several towns. Thousands of homes and businesses lost electricity.
Wind speeds were forecast to be between 40 and 60 miles per hour Monday. There is a high wind warning in effect for a large part of Massachusetts until 1 a.m. Tuesday.
Massachusetts wind reports
Here are the highest wind speeds recorded by the National Weather Service Monday.
Worcester 68 miles per hour
Fitchburg 68 mph
Milton (Blue Hill) 61 mph
Wareham 58 mph
Plymouth 58 mph
Truro 57 mph
Wrentham 55 mph
Dennis 55 mph
Boston (Logan Airport) 54 mph
Newburyport 54 mph
Hull 52 mph
New Bedford 52 mph
Hyannis 51 mph
West Falmouth 51 mph
Woods Hole 51 mph
Norwood 49 mph
Swampscott 48 mph
Westfield 48 mph
Boston (Fenway Park) 46 mph
Lawrence 46 mph
Beverly 46 mph
Otis AFB 46 mph
Orange 46 mph
Millis 46 mph
Westboro 46 mph
Nantucket 46 mph
Braving the Boston winds
The wind in Boston was about 50 miles per hour, but it didn't keep everyone inside.
"That bad hair day, that's the wind," said Danya Adalja, a Babson college student who decided to spend the day in the Back Bay.
"Wind, rain, and snow, this three combination," said Danya's roommate and fellow Babson College student, Kashmira Oswal. "When I stepped out of my home, I stepped into a huge snow puddle like my whole leg was inside,"
"We're thinking about moving here, so this is what we came to experience, the coldest you guys have to offer. I don't think this is the coldest, but it's this is pretty darn cold," Kevin Burton said with his family. He said the key takeaways of being a New Englander are "good shoes, good jacket, good socks, and thermal underwear."
The bad weather has caused some people to reconsider their travel plans.
"I wanted to drive actually from New York to here, then when we saw it was raining and that it was snowy, it was like, 'ok no I'm not driving,'" said Danna Sordo from New York City. She originally wanted to walk to the train station but decided to call a Lyft instead due to the cold, wind, and icy conditions.
Vehicles banned from New York bridge
The wind was an issue around the Northeast Monday.
In New York City, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, which connects Staten Island and Brooklyn, banned several types of vehicles. All "tractor-trailers, house trailers, motorcycles, step vans, cars pulling trailers, minibuses, and any vehicle deemed to be a potential safety hazard" were kept off the bridge as a precaution.
The damaging wind gusts came just hours after several inches of snow fell across Massachusetts Saturday into Sunday. The snow was followed by freezing rain and icy roads.
