State officials are asking people to stay off the roads between the morning and evening commutes to allow snow-clearing equipment to do their jobs.

The state Transportation Department said it had deployed more than 2,100 pieces of snow-clearing and road-treating equipment.

What started off as rain Friday morning quickly turned to sticky, heavy snow.

The state Emergency Management Agency warned that the snow could bring power outages, but as of 8:30 a.m. there were only about 1,000 statewide.

Many school districts the region closed for the day, including in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

The National Weather Service says Friday's storm is expected to leave 6 to 8 inches of snow in the Boston area and 4 to 8 in Providence, Rhode island.

The storm is expected to peter out in the afternoon.

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