A major nor'easter is knocking on the door of New England and the latest forecasts show this storm could pack a big enough punch to make its way into Boston's top snowstorms on record.

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AccuWeather forecasters have spent all week tracking the developing weather pattern that allowed for a huge storm to begin taking shape. Early on, forecasters saw the potential for a "huge snowstorm" to hit New England and, with the first flakes just hours away from falling, that's precisely the fate the Boston metro area is facing.

Near where the storm was expected to be fiercest, similar attention was being paid to the developing weather patterns. Forecasters at the National Weather Service (NWS) in Boston had already started to prepare for the winter storm by changing meteorologists' typical nine-hour shifts to 12-hour shifts.