New Parking Rules Unlikely to Get First Test Wednesday, Possibly Saturday

Danvers is expected to see only rain from a storm on Wednesday night and Thursday that could drop as much as a foot of snow to the north.

If several inches of snow or more was expected, residents were likely to get their first look at the town’s new overnight on-street winter parking rules.

While the new parking rules officially go into place on Jan. 1, last week town officials issued a public message alerting residents about how the new rules will work, reminding them to sign up to get notified when the parking ban is put in place and were ready to go with the new rules. When Selectmen approved the new rules last month, the board asked Danvers Police to be lax in its enforcement of the “old” overnight parking rules.

Instead of banning parking overnight between 1 and 6 a.m. every night, it only bans overnight on-street parking when snow is accumulating snow is forecasted and a parking ban is officially put in place.

Wednesday night's storm will be "loaded with moisture and energy as well as warm air" and keep it almost entirely rain in Danvers, writes WHDH-TV meteorlogist Jeremy Reiner in a blog post on Christmas Day.

The precipitation will start between 8-10 p.m. and may be snow for a short time to start. Then it will change to rain and a total of 1-2 inches of rain will fall, with gusty winds too on Thursday morning and early afternoon.

A more serious threat of accumulating snow is forecasted for Saturday night and Sunday. Right now, the National Weather service says only that there is a 40 percent chance of "snow," without specifying the expected totals.