Gov. Charlie Baker asked Bay Staters to stay off the roads on Sunday as another powerful winter storm pounded the region.

"Driving conditions will be very difficult and we continue to urge everyone to stay off the roads for the entire day," Baker said in a morning news conference.

Boston measured 16.2 inches of snow in the storm, making this winter the city's third-snowiest on record. Blizzard conditions were verified in Chatham, Plymouth, Hyannis, Martha's Vineyard and Falmouth, where visibility was one-quarter of a mile or less with 35 mph-plus winds for three hours or more.

"There's a little bit of déjà vu all over again," Baker said.

The snow was expected to stop by midday, but the central and eastern parts of the state are under a blizzard warning through Monday morning because high winds will blow snow and reduce visibility.

With the storm falling on a weekend and students set to start February vacation on Monday, no travel ban was issued.

"The most important thing people need to do today is stay safe and take care of themselves," Baker said. "Someone who gets trapped out there. . . it's just going to be a very bad day to be on the roads."

MBTA service was suspended for the entire day on Sunday, and a decision will be made in the afternoon on Monday' service. Flights are not expected to leave or arrive at Logan Airport before mid-afternoon.

Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack said more than 3,000 pieces of equipment are treating the roads.

"We're going to need time," she said. "Just because it stops snowing in your area does not mean you should clear your car out and get out there right away."

Old Man Winter will be unrelenting across the Northeast and Midwest this week as yet another blast of arctic air dives into the regions.

This next push of arctic air is expected to bring air that is just as cold, or even colder than the air that brought subzero lows to the Midwest and Northeast during the weekend.

Millions will shiver from Chicago to New York City as record lows are challenged during this bitter blast. Records may also fall across parts of the Southeast where temperatures manage to fall into the teens and single digits.

Floridians will even experience a taste of the arctic chill with temperatures dipping down to the lower 30s in cities such as Orlando.

The worst of the cold is expected to focus on the Midwest on Wednesday before shifting east over the Northeast for Thursday.

AccuWeather.com RealFeel® temperatures below 0 F will be common across the regions during the daytime hours, including cities along the Interstate 95 corridor. These values can then drop by as much as 20 degrees during the overnight hours, making for a bitterly cold morning commute.

It is possible for some snow showers or flurries to accompany the arrival of the harsh cold, especially across the Tennessee and Ohio valleys. This could drop a few inches of snow, leading to some slick travels.

Snow showers are also likely to develop downwind of the Great Lakes late in the week even though the lakes are quickly becoming covered in ice.

A rare whale has been found washed up on the state's far north coast.

The Gray's Beaked whale was discovered on Seven Mile Beach, south of Byron Bay.

Lawrence Orel, from the National Parks and Wildlife Service, said whales which beach themselves are usually sick.

He said scientists will be keen to examine the skeleton.

"The beaked whales are quite rare," Mr Orel said.

Workers from Ngati Kahungunu ki Wairarapa iwi yesterday recovered the bones and teeth of a 14m-long sperm whale found dead on a South Wairarapa coastal beach.

Iwi authority chief executive PJ Devonshire said the carcass of the whale - an adult male weighing about 48 tonnes - was discovered washed up and lying between rocks on a beach south of Glenburn near Honeycomb Rock a week ago Saturday.

A Department of Conservation ranger believed the animal had died of old age.

He said the DoC Honeycomb walkway extended along the stretch of coast where the whale was found and a group from the iwi had travelled to the location on Tuesday, securing and blessing the carcass in a ceremony during which the whale was also named Te Pani o te Moana - orphan of the ocean.

It's always nice to see a man enjoying his job.

Just take the Weather Channel's Jim Cantore as an example. The 51-year-old meteorologist displayed the infectious enthusiasm of a child while reporting on Sunday's blizzard in Massachusetts, US.

In the video below, which has gone viral over the past 24 hours, Cantore can be seen tramping around in knee-deep snow when the screen suddenly flashes pure white in a rare example of 'Thundersnow' - when lightning occurs during snowfall.

"Oh yes! Yes! Yes!" he exclaims. "We got it baby! We got it! We got it! Woo! Woo! We got it! Yes! Listen to that! Listen to that! Oh baby!"

Just as Cantore begins to regain his composure, the screen again flashes white, setting the excitable weatherman off on another bout of wild celebration. "Oh again! Again!" he shouts, throwing a handful of snow into the air. "That's a two-fer. That's a two-fer, baby. Oh my goodness!"

Four further flashes illicit similar exultations, as the meteorologist gives up any pretence of hiding his excitement.

Harmful algae off the coast of South Africa has killed more than 200 metric tons of West Coast Rock Lobster, according to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

The algae, known as red tide for the color it creates in the water, killed 80 tons of the crustacean on Wednesday at Eland Bay, north of Cape Town, the department said in an e-mailed statement. The total loss is equivalent to more than 10 percent of the allowable catch this season.

The bloom was detected on Feb. 3 off South Africa's west coast and killed about 30 tons of lobsters on Feb. 9 and another 70 tons on Tuesday, the department said.

A strange fish has washed up on the North Devon coast.

It was discovered yesterday at Northam Burrows by Nick Porter, who was walking his dogs when he spotted what he believes is a Parrot Fish.

He said: "Interestingly, the carcass was not apparently decaying as you would expect a fish to do.

"The skin was hard and leathery."

For Valentine's Day, night-sky photographer Alan Dyer received not red roses, but red auroras. "It was an odd display. Instead of the usual green, the lights over Manitoba, Canada, on Feb. 14th were a beautiful shade of red," says Dyer, who took this 25 second exposure using a Canon 6D digital camera and a fish-eye lens:
"The bright light at the right is Jupiter," he points out. "Later, the aurora took on the more normal appearance with green curtains topped by fringes of red."

Flooding at a PAO Uralkali potash mine in Russia's Perm region has increased four-fold in the last two weeks, and a nearby sinkhole is almost 300 feet across.

The average brine inflow to the Solikamsk-2 mine increased from 200 cubic meters an hour to about 820 cubic meters an hour between Jan. 22 and Feb. 6, the world's largest potash miner said today in a statement. A sinkhole that opened up east of the mine, swallowing local summer homes, has widened to 87 meters (285 feet) by 58 meters and is about 75 meters deep, it said.

It was stalking around town, on the hunt for prey in a secluded El Dorado Hills neighborhood overrun with trees and brush. It's the kind of environment that makes it easy for a predator on the top of the food chain to hide out.

A 50-pound bobcat did some serious damage to the community, killing 3 pets in 2 days.

"Killed one of their cats, attacked another one of their cats and tried to eat it but the cat got away. Killed another neighbor's cat, then he called us," Jeffery Duke of Duke's Wildlife Control & Removal told FOX40.