SNOW JOB: Boston Breaks Records

OSTON (Reuters) - After hosting parades through snowy streets and weathering storms that snarled traffic and commerce over the last few months, Boston residents have seen the snowiest winter in the city's recorded history, the National Weather Service said.

Boston got 108.6 inches (275.8 cm) of snow over the winter, surpassing the city's previous 1995-1996 record of 107.6 inches. The new record was officially set at about 7 p.m. on Sunday, after a storm dropped 2.9 inches on the capital and largest city in Massachusetts.

"Boston, you survived the snowiest winter on record!!!," the National Weather Service in Taunton wrote in a message on Facebook.

The record-setting inches, the most snowfall of any season since 1872, the first year on record, came after a day of rain began melting snow piles around the city and hinted at the onset of spring.

"Superbowls, World Series', Stanley Cups, and snowfall records. We are truly a title city," said Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, on Twitter. "There will be no parade," he deadpanned.

Boston earlier on Sunday held its annual St. Patrick's Parade in slushy streets and last month celebrated the New England Patriots' win at the NFL's Super Bowl with a parade through roads lined with snow piles. 

"I don't feel a sense of accomplishment," said 34-year-old Tyler Comings, an economist, as he walked on newly snowy sidewalks in Cambridge. "I think other people take more delight in it than do people in Boston."

Caitlin Isbister, a 33-year-old acupuncturist, was more gratified to see some kind of reward for a winter that at times brought the entire city to a halt, forcing the closure of schools and offices, shutting down public transportation, and hurting businesses.

"At least we got something to show for it," she said.

(Editing by Eric M. Johnson, Robert Birsel)