A snowstorm began dumping heaps of snow on Massachusetts on Sunday, and heavy snowfall is expected to continue into the night, according to the National Weather Service.

All of the state is predicted to get between a foot and 20 inches of snow as the snowstorm continues through 8 p.m. Monday, according to the weather service’s winter storm warning. Parts of Northeast and Western Massachusetts could see up to two feet.

Rapid snowfall rates of 1 to 3 inches per hour are expected to continue until midnight on Sunday before calming down by 2 a.m., according to the weather service. Travel conditions will remain extremely poor during this time, and visibility while driving could deteriorate to a quarter-mile during the heaviest snowfall.

Lingering moisture is predicted to cause lighter snowfall through much of the day on Monday, according to the weather service. The snow is expected to stop in Eastern and Central Massachusetts by 8 p.m. Monday and by 9 or 10 p.m. in Western Massachusetts.

Below zero wind chills are predicted to follow the end of the snowstorm across the state Monday night, according to the weather service. Wind chills around -1 or -2 degrees are expected in Eastern Massachusetts, while wind chills around -6 or -7 are expected in Central Massachusetts and parts of Western Massachusetts. Wind chills as frigid as -10 degrees are possible in the Berkshires.

Overnight low temperatures Sunday night are predicted to dip into the mid 20s in Eastern Massachusetts and the mid teens in Central Massachusetts and parts of Western Massachusetts, according to the weather service. Lows in the single digits are expected in the Berkshires.

Highs during the day on Monday are predicted to reach the low to mid 30s in Eastern Massachusetts and the low to mid 20s in Central and Western Massachusetts, according to the weather service. Overnight lows Monday night are predicted to drop into the single digits in most of the state.

If you’re heading to the White Mountains this weekend to hike or enjoy the winter weather, you should prepare accordingly or risk a bill for thousands of dollars.

New Hampshire is one of the few states where people who call for rescue while hiking, climbing or doing other outdoor activities face the possibility of being charged for the effort.

While it doesn’t happen often — New Hampshire Fish and Game Colonel Kevin Jordan said they will only bill those who have been “really outrageously reckless” — it still serves as a deterrent for those who might otherwise leave home unprepared.

“If you forget that outer heavy layer, we’re not going to bill you for it,” Jordan said. “If you don’t have any equipment or any knowledge of what you’re doing and you created a situation where everybody had to be put at risk to come and get you, then that is something that we’re going to bill for.”

Jordan said the department typically conducts between 180 and 200 rescues each year, and of those, around 12 on average will end up with a bill.

The cost for a rescue ranges depending on the circumstances but often runs more than $5,000, especially if an airlift is required. Jordan said many who are charged end up paying less than the total cost through legal settlements, and the department knows most can’t afford a sudden expense of upwards of $10,000.

State law provides no specifics on who can and cannot be charged for a search-and-rescue effort, stating only that those found to have “recklessly or intentionally” created a situation requiring rescue can be held liable for the “reasonable cost” of the rescue. If they do not pay, they might have any license, certification or tag issued by Fish and Game, or even their driver’s license, revoked.

While many of the rescues performed last year involved injuries or unavoidable circumstances, even for experienced hikers, others were the result of hikers failing to bring the proper equipment, starting a hike late in the day so they got stuck in the dark, not researching their route beforehand or ignoring warnings about the difficulty of the trails they chose.

On Dec. 19, two Massachusetts teens were rescued from Mount Monadnock after they started a hike around 5:30 p.m., after dark, according to a news release Fish and Game published at the time. One of the two teens was “heavily intoxicated” and they both fell into a freezing-cold brook, the department said, and were billed for the effort.

Earlier in the month, a pair of hikers had to be rescued after leaving for a 9-mile trek at 1 p.m. without adequate clothing for the temperatures and navigating the trail with only a cellphone. They called for help when one of the hikers suffered a leg injury.

“They lost their composure and would not listen to any advice being given to them,” a department spokesperson wrote at the time. “If hikers cannot adhere to the hiker responsibility code … then they should consider staying home. Rescues of this magnitude and conditions put rescue personnel at great risk.”

Jordan said the most common issue he sees among unprepared hikers is a lack of headlamps or other light sources, generally because people don’t expect to still be out in the mountains after dark. When the sun goes down, they end up having to rely on cellphone flashlights to see, and along with the cold temperatures, their device batteries run down quickly.

In general, unprepared hikers and climbers fail to bring the correct equipment for their trips, such as snowshoes or microspikes, food or just extra layers to protect from the cold. In warmer months, many don’t understand that temperatures above the tree line are far colder, but in the winter, the situation can be even more dire.

“Especially like this weekend, when you’re going to have wind chills down into the 30-below mark, they don’t layer up enough,” Jordan said. “They don’t understand the concept of layered clothing and how important it is for your survival.”

The issue is not limited to travelers from warmer climates, either. Jordan said they tend to rescue locals and people from out-of-state in equal measure.

“People would like to say, ‘Oh, it’s those people from down below that don’t understand,’” he said. “Well, that’s not exactly true.”

When New Hampshire lawmakers first passed the law allowing people to be charged for their rescue in 2008, many residents were concerned it would jeopardize safety by discouraging people from calling for help. But Jordan said that hasn’t been the case. Sometimes, hikers will ask their rescuers when they reach safety if they’ll be considered responsible, but hardly ever before.

“If you’re in a car accident, you’re not worrying about what the ambulance is going to cost. If you’re injured, you want the ambulance and you worry about (the cost) on Monday,” he said. “It’s no different hiking.”

One hiker, who was rescued in early 2025, told New Hampshire Public Radio at the time that he wasn’t sure if he would be billed, but if he wasn’t, he planned to make a donation to thank the rescue team for saving his life.

“My answer was ‘whatever you guys have to do,’” Bart Zienkiewicz, of Naugatuck, Connecticut, told the radio station. “If I see a fine or a bill or whatever you need to call it, I’m happy to be able to pay that bill versus not paying it, of course, if things had gotten really bad and they couldn’t find us.”

How to protect your wallet

Beyond simply being prepared for an excursion, the best way to avoid a bill in the thousands of dollars is to purchase a “Hike Safe” card, a voluntary, state-run program started to raise money for search-and-rescue efforts. The virtual card costs $25 for an individual or $35 for a family and protects the holder from liability for the costs of a rescue while they are participating in any outdoor recreation activities in New Hampshire for the calendar year.

Before the Hike Safe card’s introduction in 2015, search-and-rescue was funded almost entirely by fees from hunting and boating licenses (which also exempt the holder for liability for rescue costs). But Jordan said most of the people being rescued were not the hunters and boaters who were funding the program, so Hike Safe was born.

In its first year, Hike Safe brought in more than $100,000, Jordan said. Last year, the amount was more than $300,000 — not enough to fully fund the program, but a huge help that allows Fish and Game to purchase new equipment for rescue teams.

Technically, a Hike Safe card holder can still be charged if their rescue is caused by particularly egregious behavior, but Jordan said in more than a decade of the card’s existence, that has never happened.

He said he didn’t know how many of the 180 to 200 rescues each year involved people with Hike Safe cards, but estimated that it was a very low percentage of the total.

“If people are going to buy a Hike Safe card because they feel like they want to contribute to the program, those are the people that are usually hardcore hikers,” he said. “They’re prepared and I don’t ever see or hear from them again.”

By Michael Biesecker, Tim Sullivan and Jim Mustian

MINNEAPOLIS — Family members say the man killed by a U.S. Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis on Saturday was an intensive care nurse at a VA hospital who cared deeply about people and was upset by President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in his city.

Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, was an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed going on adventures with Joule, his beloved Catahoula Leopard dog, who also recently died. He worked for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and had participated in protests following the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs officer.

• Read more: Hundreds protest ICE in Boston after 2nd fatal shooting by federal agents in Minnesota

“He cared about people deeply, and he was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States with ICE, as millions of other people are upset,” said Michael Pretti, Alex’s father. “He thought it was terrible, you know, kidnapping children, just grabbing people off the street. He cared about those people, and he knew it was wrong, so he did participate in protests.”

Pretti was a U.S. citizen, born in Illinois. Like Good, court records showed he had no criminal record and his family said he had never had any interactions with law enforcement beyond a handful of traffic tickets.

In a recent conversation with their son, his parents, who live in Colorado, told him to be careful when protesting.

“We had this discussion with him two weeks ago or so, you know, that go ahead and protest, but do not engage, do not do anything stupid, basically,” Michael Pretti said. “And he said he knows that. He knew that.”

The Department of Homeland Security said the man was shot after he “approached” Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun. Officials did not specify if Pretti brandished the gun. In bystander videos of the shooting that emerged soon after, Pretti is seen with a phone in his hand, but none appear to show him with a visible weapon.

Family members said Pretti owned a handgun and had a permit to carry a concealed handgun in Minnesota. They said they had never known him to carry it.

Alex Pretti’s family struggles for information about what happened

The family first learned of the shooting when they were called by an Associated Press reporter. They watched the video and said the man who shot appeared to be their son. They then tried reaching out to officials in Minnesota.

“I can’t get any information from anybody,” Michael Pretti said Saturday. “The police, they said, call Border Patrol, Border Patrol’s closed, the hospitals won’t answer any questions.”

Eventually, the family called the Hennepin County Medical Examiner, who, they said, confirmed had a body matching the name and description of their son.

As of Saturday evening, the family said they had still not heard from anyone at a federal law enforcement agency about their son’s death.

Alex Pretti grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he played football, baseball and ran track for Preble High School. He was a Boy Scout and sang in the Green Bay Boy Choir.

After graduation, he went to the University of Minnesota, graduating in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in biology, society and the environment, according to the family. He worked as a research scientist before returning to school to become a registered nurse.

Alex Pretti had protested before

Pretti’s ex-wife, who spoke to the AP but later said she didn’t want her name used, said she was not surprised he would have been involved in protesting Trump’s immigration crackdown. She said she had not spoken to him since they divorced more than two years ago and she moved to another state.

She said he was a Democratic voter and that he had participated in the wave of street protests following the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, not far from the couple’s neighborhood. She described him as someone who might shout at law enforcement officers at a protest, but she had never known him to be physically confrontational.

She said Pretti got a permit to carry a concealed firearm about three years ago and that he owned at least one semiautomatic handgun when they separated.

Pretti had ‘a great heart’

Pretti lived in a four-unit condominium building about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from where he was shot. Neighbors described him as quiet and warmhearted.

“He’s a wonderful person,” said Sue Gitar, who lived downstairs from Pretti and said he moved into the building about three years ago. “He has a great heart.”

If there was something suspicious going on in the neighborhood, or when they worried the building might have a gas leak, he would jump in to help.

Pretti lived alone and worked long hours as a nurse, but he was not a loner, his neighbors said, and would sometimes have friends over.

His neighbors knew he had guns — he’d occasionally take a rifle to shoot at a gun range — but were surprised at the idea that he might carry a pistol on the streets.

“I never thought of him as a person who carried a gun,” said Gitar.

Pretti was also passionate about the outdoors

A competitive bicycle racer who lavished care on his new Audi, Pretti had also been deeply attached to his dog, who died about a year ago.

His parents said their last conversation with their son was a couple of days before his death. They talked about the repairs he had made to his home’s garage door. The worker was a Latino man, and they said that, with all that was happening in Minneapolis, he gave the man a $100 tip.

Pretti’s mother said her son cared immensely about the direction the county was headed, especially the Trump administration’s rollback of environmental regulations.

“He hated that, you know, people were just trashing the land,” Susan Pretti said. “He was an outdoorsman. He took his dog everywhere he went. You know, he loved this country, but he hated what people were doing to it.”

Biesecker reported from Washington and Mustian from New York.