Massachusetts
Where brush fires are burning in Massachusetts
BOSTON – Dry conditions have persisted and with no rain in the immediate forecast, several Massachusetts communities are dealing with significant brush fires.
According to the Department of Fire Services, as of Saturday night there have been 106 brush and wildland fires reported over the last week. In total, the fires have burned around 600 acres.
Five new fires have been reported since Friday, officials said.
Massachusetts brush fires
Here is where fires are currently burning in Massachusetts, as of Saturday night:
- Cain Hill (Salem/Lynn) – 140 acres, 50% contained
- Middleton Pond (Middleton) – 188 acres, 70% contained
- Pappas (Canton) – 32 acres, 90% contained
- Wolcott Hill/Blue Hills Reservation (Milton) – 4 acres, 70% contained
- Curry 24 (Devens) – 100 acres, 99% contained
- Maple Meadow (Wilmington) – 10 acres, 70% contained
- Mt. Laurel (Holden) – 6 acres, 95% contained
- Traders Way (Salem) – 15 acres, 50% contained
- Old Forest Rd (North Andover) – 5 acres, 30% contained
- Bradway (Monson) – 44 acres, 90% contained
- Castle Rock (Saugus) – 22 acres, 80% contained
- Pond South (Middleton) – 4 acres, 60% contained
- Fitzgerald (Northampton) – 54 acres, 30% contained
- Moose Meadow (Montgomery) – 60 acres, 60% contained
- Howe (Spencer) – 9.5 acres, 30% contained
How to prevent brush fires
As fires continue to burn, the Department of Fire Services is asking people to take precautions. Here are their tips for preventing fires:
- Do not burn leaves. (Open burning is prohibited through January)
- Refrain from outdoor cooking and heating.
- Use caution with lawnmowers, leaf blowers and other power equipment as engines can get hot enough to ignite dry leaves.
- Dump ashes from fireplaces and wood stoves in a metal can, douse them with water, and cover them with a tight-fitting lid.
- Extinguish smoking materials in an ashtray with water or sand.
Massachusetts
Where was the snowfall jackpot zone in Massachusetts? Some stats from the Blizzard of 2026
The Blizzard of 2026 was moving out to sea Monday night. What’s left behind in its wake is a complete mess. One to three feet of snow with drifts twice as high.
Hundreds of thousands without power. Telephone poles snapped, wires were left hanging, trees and limbs down, cars left stranded.
Blizzard of 2026 stats
Just some of the remarkable stats:
This was the biggest snowstorm in the recorded history of Providence, Rhode Island with more than 37″.
The city absolutely smashed the prior record set back in the Blizzard of ’78.
Blizzard in Boston
The total in Boston as of Monday evening was up to 16.9″.
This puts the city over 60″ for the season, the first above average snowfall season in four years.
This is also the most snow Boston has received in a season since that insane winter of 2014-2015.
It looks like it will fall just short of another top 10 snowstorm in Boston.
Worcester snow
This certainly wasn’t one of Worcester’s biggest storms, but the 16″ from this nor’easter puts the city well over six feet for the winter season to date.
This is Worcester’s snowiest winter season since 2016-2017 when they recorded 78.3″.
Snowfall jackpot zone
The snowfall “jackpot” was, as predicted, across southeastern Massachusetts.
An intense band of snow parked itself right over Plymouth and Bristol counties all day long.
By late afternoon, several communities in this area received more than 30″ of snow. Fall River got 41″ and New Bedford got 37″.
Snowfall rates reached as high as 4-5″ per hour at times in this area.
A snow plow driver in Kingston, Massachusetts narrowly avoided being impaled by a falling tree branch Monday while clearing snow during a blizzard.
The Kingston Police Department shared photos showing a branch that came crashing down. The limb pierced the windshield of the pickup truck.
Police said the branch, which was about six inches in diameter and several feet long, landed between the driver’s legs, “missing impaling him by inches.”
Kingston Fire and Emergency Management also posted a photo from inside the truck that shows the branch wedged underneath the steering wheel.
“Please stay off the roadways. Even those who are trying to keep the roads clear and safe are having difficulties. Luckily there was no injury to the plow operator,” the fire department said.
Police said roads are being plowed, but then become messy immediately as the snow covers them. In addition, winds are blowing branches onto power lines and into the roads.
“There is no sugar-coating this. It’s bad out here. The worst in years and it’s not over yet,” Kingston police said.
Monday’s punishing storm officially was declared a blizzard for many areas in the state. “Considerable falling and/or blowing snow which reduces visibility to less than ¼ mile for 3+ hours AND sustained winds or frequent gusts 35 mph or greater in that same timeframe” is the official criteria of a blizzard.
Several hundred thousand people in Massachusetts are without power during the storm. Some parts of the state have already reported two feet of snow.
Massachusetts
Most Harvard Schools to Move Classes Online Following Massachusetts State of Emergency | News | The Harvard Crimson
Updated February 22, 2026, at 7:42 p.m.
Harvard College and several other Harvard schools will move Monday classes online following a statewide emergency declaration issued ahead of a major blizzard.
The decision was announced in a Sunday afternoon email sent to undergraduates, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences students, and other Faculty of Arts and Sciences affiliates. In separate emails and notices posted on school websites, the Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard Law School, Graduate School of Design, Harvard School of Public Health, and Harvard Extension School also confirmed they would hold classes online Monday.
The email to FAS affiliates instructed nonessential employees to remain home and work remotely, reinforcing a University-wide announcement issued earlier Sunday by Executive Vice President Meredith L. Weenick ’90.
Residential dining services for undergraduates are expected to operate as usual, according to the email, while GSAS students will have access to limited dining options through the student center.
The Harvard School of Dental Medicine and Harvard Graduate School of Education canceled all Monday in-person classes and events, according to announcements posted on the schools’ websites.
Harvard Business School will continue to hold in-person classes, but non-essential staff were instructed to work remotely as a result of the forecast.
Massachusetts Governor Maura T. Healey ’92 declared a statewide state of emergency amid blizzard warnings across Southern New England. Forecasters expect the storm to bring with winds of up to 75 miles per hour to Cambridge, along with 18 to 25 inches of snow.
Harvard’s decision mirrors those of nearby institutions, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brown University. Harvard has closed campus only a handful of times in recent years, most notably during winter storms in 2013 and 2015.
Forecasts of a major snowstorm at the start of the semester did not prompt the FAS and College to close, however, drawing widespread complaints among the student body.
Harvard Undergraduate Association co-president Abdullah Shahid Sial ’27 cheered the College’s decision following a regular HUA meeting Sunday.
“Having lived in Pakistan my entire life, I’ve never seen snow until pretty much I came to Harvard,” he said. “Now, being in a position where all classes are canceled because of snow, I’m very excited.”
—Staff writers Alma T. Barak and Theresa F. Bartelme contributed reporting.
—Staff writer Sebastian B. Connolly can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal @sbc.23. Follow him on X @SebastianC4784.
—Staff writer Summer E. Rose can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal @ser.85. Follow her on X @summerellenrose.
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