A historic blizzard paralyzed much of the Northeast in late February, and amateur radio operators were on the air to help forecasters keep track of the storm’s impact. Southeastern New England was one of the hardest-hit areas. ARRL Eastern Massachusetts Section Emergency Coordinator and Boston-area SKYWARN Coordinator Rob Macedo, KD1CY, provided this summary for ARRL News:

A severe blizzard left its mark on Southeast New England with massive amounts of snow, vehicles and even plows getting stuck, damaging winds gusts to hurricane force causing ~350,000 customers to lose power in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and some coastal flooding issues at high tide. The blizzard broke Rhode Island’s state record for snowfall with 37.8 inches of snow in Providence. ARES-SKYWARN Nets across southern New England were activated with the WX1BOX amateur radio team to support the National Weather Service (NWS) Boston/Norton office, as well as local and state emergency management and broadcast media, with timely updates on the storm.

We had ARES-SKYWARN nets activating on an every 1-2 hour basis providing snowfall, wind gust, wind damage and coastal flood reports. The nets were very active with great participation, allowing a comprehensive situational awareness. We also interacted with many non-amateur radio SKYWARN spotters via social media.

Reports of snowfall as high as  43 inches in Tiverton, Rhode Island, and 41 inches in Fall River, Massachusetts, were received from SKYWARN spotters. Macedo’s hometown of New Bedford, Msssachusetts, recorded 37 inches of snow.

Amateur Radio SKYWARN Nets were active on over a dozen repeaters across southern New England, along with the New England Amateur Radio VoIP Reflector system with snowfall, wind damage and wind gust reports. The Amateur Radio Net Plan for Massachusetts was sent into Massachusetts Emergency Management in an ICS-205 to ESF-2 as part of a closer working relationship with state emergency management. Well over 1,000 reports were generated from these nets and shared with partner agencies and the media. Blizzard conditions were met at numerous sites across southern New England.

Eastern Massachusetts ARES was placed on stand-by on Sunday 2/22/26 for any partner agencies and to augment and enhance support for the ARES-SKYWARN Nets for participation. Cape Cod ARES members Chris Ranney, WA1CMR, and Dennis Driscoll, N1DRN, deployed to support operations in the town of Sandwich, providing auxiliary communications between their EOC and a shelter for the town. Their operation secured on Wednesday evening, February 25.

Amateur radio received media attention on The Weather Channel several times throughout the blizzard. Jim Cantore stated, “When we get all these observations, it comes from SKYWARN spotters and amateur radio operators because when people can’t communicate and the phone lines down, the amateur radio operators are all we got.”

The WX1BOX website will be updated with a Post Blizzard Coordination Message at the end of the week with more detailed information on the blizzard across southern New England.

ARRL News and The ARRL Letter will also provide reports from other parts of the affected region as they are received.