Comment Boston Representing (Score 2) 397
I'm in Boston as well and it basically unfolded exactly as predicted.
Note: this was a pretty tricky storm to forecast: it wasn't just a "system" that moved across from west to east like a lot of snowstorms do in the midwest (where I'm from). This thing was swirling off the coast and depended on a low pressure system combined with north/south winds on shore to make for "waves" of snow that washed onto the land. Definitely a really interesting beast.
As a computational scientist (I specialize in the types of multiphysics models that underly a lot of weather modeling) I can tell you that this type of thing is VERY hard to predict. I think they did a really good job here of informing the public and keeping people safe.
The message definitely worked here in the Boston area as everyone stayed home and was stocked up in case the power went out. Everything basically went smoothly despite the fact that 2-3 feet of snow fell in a densely populated area.
This is just basic NYC centric reporting. They happened to get a little less there than forecast (they still got several inches) so people are griping. If they hadn't made preparations and it had been as bad there as it is in Boston then we would have had a full-scale media blitz on how they screwed up this emergency management effort....