A major winter storm impacted central and northern Rhode Island with heavy snow and strong winds. The slow-moving storm, which tracked south of New England, dumped more than a foot of snow across Providence and Kent counties and knocked out power to tens of thousands of customers.
Every event with a place to put it; 4 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS BOX wrote it up.
A major winter storm impacted central and northern Rhode Island with heavy snow and strong winds. The slow-moving storm, which tracked south of New England, dumped more than a foot of snow across Providence and Kent counties and knocked out power to tens of thousands of customers. Schools and businesses were shut down for three days in some communities. Officially, T.F. Green State Airport in Warwick reported a storm total of 6.5 inches. Other areas of Kent County reported 6 to 10 inches of snow from the storm. In Providence County, as much as 16 inches of snow fell in North Foster. Burrillville and Lincoln both reported totals of 14 inches, North Smithfield 13 inches, and Cumberland, Johnston, and Woonsocket had 10 inches of snow.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Boston/Norton, MA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Mar 5, 12:20 PM EST, 40 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION..CORRECTED..
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAUNTON MA
1220 PM EST MON MAR 5 2001
...THIS STORM APPEARS TO BE NOT PANNING OUT QUITE AS EXPECTED...
TRAVEL: COASTAL ROUTES WILL WORK OUT FINE TODAY AND PROBABLY THIS
EVENING.
RECOVERY: SHUD NOT BE AS DIFFICULT AS ANTICIPATED YDY S OF BOSTON.
BLIZZARD WARNING: DROPPED IN BOSTON PROPER BUT CONTD NW SUBURBS...CUT
WAY BACK ON AMTS ON SE NEW ENGLAND. THIS DOES NOT MEAN IT CANT HAPPEN
BUT IT S GOING TO TAKE LONGER AND ODDS ARE LESS FOR A BLIZZARD THAN
OUR EARLIER FCSTS STATED. MOST LIKELY REGION FOR OCCURENCE IN MERR
VLY NEWBURYPORT TO LWM AND MHT AND MAYBE ORH. AM NOW CONCERNED ABOUT
GETTING WIND DONW IN THERE.
HEAVY OR VERY HEAVY SNOW WILL OCCUR IN BOSTONS NORTHERN AND WESTERN
SUBURBS W AND N TO ORH-HFD NORTHWARD WHILE IN THE CORRIDOR SFC-IJD-
OWD-NZW MQE-BOS AM CONCERNED ABT MOSTLY ZR/IP/WET S MIX.
SOUNDINGS AT BOSTON ARE IN OUR OPINION DANGEROUS CLOSE TO ALL SNOW...
EVEN THE WARMER ETA...BUT TOO LARGE A LAYER NEAR 0C...MAY BE TOO
MUCH FOR THE COMMA HEAD TO OVERCOME. WE WILL KNOW AT 8 PM.
WE ALSO CAUTION THAT RAPID STORM DVLPT IS OCCURING AND IT WILL STILL
BE A SERIOUS IMPACT STORM FROM THE MERRIMACK VALLEY THROUGH ORH AND
I84 NORTHWARD. XPCTING SFALL RATE OF 1 TO POSSIBLY 3" PER HR 22Z-04Z
WITH RISK ISOLATED THUNDER.
MODELS: 12Z ETA IS STRANGLEY WARMER DESPITE NGM SFC LO CLOSER TO SNE
12Z TUE. DEVIATION IN TEMP PROFILE BEGINS 18Z TDY. AVN
IS COLDER AS WELL WITH 1.72 IN 24 HRS ENDING 12Z TUE.
WE LIKE THE AVN UVM INTIALIZATION THIS AM AS C0MPARED TO
REFLECTIVITY.
BLV STG UVM THIS AFTN WILL COMPENSATE FOR NEAR FREEZING SOUNDINGS
AND TURN LGT MXD PCPN BACK TO SNOW/SLEET MIX DOWN TO NZW-PVD LN AND
TO ALL SNOW IN BOS PTS N AND W. HOW LONG THAT UVM CAN COMPENSATE WE
DONT KNOW. TNGT THE SOUNDINGS TEND TO COOL SLIGHTLY BUT THE GOOD
MID LVL UVM SHUD PASS NW OF I 95 REGION ARD 06Z. DRY SLOT IS
UNCOMFORTABLY CLOSE TO BOS AND WHILE MXD PCPN WAS ANTICIPATED FOR A
FEW HRS TDY TO MA PIKE REGION...UNCOMFORTABLE ABOUT FCST AS BEING TOO
STRONGLY WORDED.
18Z CHH SOUNDING MAY B HELFPUL IN ETA/NGM DECISION..ESPECIALLY
COMPARING WITH THE 6 HR 12Z MODEL SOUNDINGS.
WRAPARD TUE INTO WED IS A FUNCTION OF UPPER AIR FEATURES AND NGM HAS
BOS GETTING DECENT SNOW TUESDAY WITH STG NE WIND WHILE ETA DRIES US
OUT. ALSO A HINT IN MODEL SOUNDINGS OF LAKE EFFECT (LE) CONTRIBUTION
WED MORNING E MA COAST.
CSTL FLOOD WATCH EXPANDED TO ALL OUR COAST...WHERE MAJOR CSTL
FLOODING IS PSBL WITH TUE MRNG HI TIDE. MDT TO HIGH PROB CONCERN FOR
E MA COASTAL WATERS.
PROJECTED BOS TIDES WITHOUT SURGE AND WAVE FOLLOW:
3/5 640 AM 10.2
727 PM 8.9
3/6 743 AM 10.6
829 PM 8.9
3/7 845 AM 11.0
927 PM 10.0
ZONES VIA XNOW: TOO MUCH DB MANIPULATION AND SUBSEQUENT AWIPS REEDIT.
RDF NO LONGER VALID TIL NEW AFTN PKG.
.BOS...BLIZZARD WRNG MAZ004>007-012
WINTER STORM WRNG REST OF FA BUT BACKED OFF TIL LATE TDY AND/
OR LATE TNGT PVD-PYM REGION SEWD..DEPENDENT ON ZONES.
COASTAL FLOOD WATCH ALL SNE COAST.
STORM WRNG ALL CSTL WATERS XCPT GALES NARR BAY.
DRAGThe national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
4 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Rhode Island in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyWarnings in Rhode Island, March 2001
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5237892, 5237893, 5237894, 5237895.