NBC Boston takes the lead in the battle of on-air boxes; reporters stake out turf with Dunk's cups, shovels, trash bags

NBC Boston showed its reporting fury at noon today, putting 15 reporters and weather people on air all at once, easily topping Channel 7's 12-box:

Bill Whelan noticed that a couple of the outdoor reporters at Channel 7 didn't look real happy:

In Wrentham, Channel 7's Caroline Goggin had a whole bunch of Dunkin' Donuts cups with which to measure the snow. Around 11:15 a.m., she was dusting off the top of her fifth stacked cup:

In Lynn, WBZ's Anna Meiler only had one Dunk's cup, but after a nearby viewer noticed it was empty, he brought over a mug and a Thermos full of hot coffee:

Channel 7 reporters took differing approaches to showing viewers that it's windy out there. A snackless Steve Cooper in Sandwich used the classic Shelby Scott move of leaning into the wind (screen capture by Tim):

Up in Scituate, though, Jonathan Hall used a plastic trash bag:

Reporters and weather people kept saying how hard the snow is to measure because of all the wind and drifting. NBC Boston, though, has customized yardsticks - which makes you wonder if they sell them in their gift shop:

Some reporters tried making snowballs on air, but were foiled by just how light and dry the snow is:

Channel 7 's Dan Hausle reported live from somewhere outdoors, wearing camo pants left over from that time he covered a bloodbath in an Oreo factory, apparently (screen capture by Tim):

WBZ's Sara Wroblewski demonstrated impressive upper arm strength, doing some one-hand snow shoveling:

WCVB's David Bienick had a shovel, too, as he stood on Quincy Shore Drive, near the yacht clubs. But instead of mini-plowing, he used his to point to where Boston would be, if it still existed. And then, he went into a batting stance and brought us along as he pretended to be at the plate at Fenway aiming for the Green Monster, only even in his imagination, he could no longer see it because of all the blowing snow.