By Scott Malone and Valerie Vande Panne
BOSTON (Reuters) - Massachusetts, New Hampshire and upstate New York braced for up to 6 inches (15 cm) of snow on Monday as forecasters warned that winter weather would overtake the area even as spring entered its second week.
Police warned motorists to slow down and some schools opened late in the area as the storm blew in during the morning commute and threatened to linger through the evening rush hour, with temperatures holding around 25 degrees Fahrenheit (-3.9°C).
Some harried travelers said they were ready for the climate to catch up with the calendar.
"It's freezing. I'm tired. It's April," Carolyn Thomson, 45, said as she rushed to her job at a downtown Boston financial firm. "It should be over by now. I'm worried about getting my son to school on time. I'm late for work."
While National Weather Service forecasters said the snow would continue to accumulate through the day, forecasts called for a return to warmer weather by Wednesday, suggesting the white coating would be short-lived.
Following an unusually mild winter, which followed Boston's record-setting 9 feet (2.74 m) of snow during the winter of 2014-15, one man who makes his living cleaning up after storms said he liked the late storm.
"It's New England. I'm very happy. It's overtime," Pablo Guerrero, a 44-year-old maintenance worker, said as he shoveled a downtown sidewalk. "Last year it was better."