FRIDAY WEATHER UPDATE: STORM WINDS DOWN… SOME FLURRIES OR LIGHT SNOW AT TIMES INTO EARLY AFTERNOON… PARTIAL SUNSHINE FOR SOME LATER THIS AFTERNOON, ESPECIALLY WEST OF THE CT RIVER… WINDS PICKS UP LATER… NICE SUNSET POSSIBLE… ICING EVENT COMING FOR SUNDAY MORNING INTO AFTERNOON… BRUTAL COLD AND BELOW-ZERO WIND CHILLS MONDAY NIGHT AND TUESDAY NIGHT… 11:20am Friday…
Good morning everybody, just wanted to poke my head in and post an update as our storm winds down.
Snow totals have ranged from an inch or two in southern VT, southwest NH, parts of the Berkshires and northern Franklin County, to about 2-5″ in northwest CT and much of the rest of WMass including the Pioneer Valley and much of northern Worcester County, to over half a foot in eastern Hampden County, southern Worcester County and north-central CT, to a whopping 8-14″ in northeast CT into EMass — areas which basically saw the absolute PERFECTION of maximized dendrite-type snowflake production.
I have honestly never seen such high snow-to-liquid (SLR) ratios in my life, in some cases 20″ snow to 1″ liquid (20:1), up to 30:1!
Obviously, I didn’t foresee that coming *raises hand*, and rarely if ever can an actual meteorologist or scientist (or weather nut) be able to predict such an occurrence in advance – I posted that totals were going up in this area at 6am when I saw what was transpiring.
All I have to say is that private plow operators have to be especially happy if they’re east of I-91 and south of the Pike where the snow really thumped this morning.
It’s about time for those folks!
POST-STORM: THIS AFTERNOON INTO SATURDAY
Going forward, flurries and some light snow will be on the wane into early afternoon, and partial sunshine should break out across the region, though clouds may hang tough east of the I-91 corridor.
We could see a beautiful sunset, so keep the cameras handy!
Highs will reach the upper 20s to low 30s, and as the storm deepens this afternoon and tonight on its way to becoming a Nova Scotia blizzard, northwest winds will gust to 25mph and produce some blowing snow.
We also can’t rule out a few afternoon or evening snow showers in the Berkshires, Taconics, and SVT.
With fresh snow pack and new cold air transport (a/k/a “advection”) lows will crash into the upper singles to low teens with wind chills in the low to mid single digits, so bundle up and watch for slippery roads.
For Saturday, highs will reach the mid to upper 20s under mostly sunny skies with slackening wind.
At night, a storm will be gathering strength well north of us, and will track through the St. Lawrence River Valley, draping a warm front south of its center, and dragging it towards our region with milder air behind it.
Lows Saturday night will be quite cold again, in the mid to upper teens.
SUNDAY ICING EVENT, A.M. TRAVEL IMPACTS POSSIBLE
This will set up a perfect cold surface for milder air to overrun, condense, precipitate over the WMass region, and produce sleet and freezing rain here which will start after sunrise on Sunday morning, and last into the afternoon.
Yes, some areas will turn to plain rain by early afternoon, for now it looks like Springfield points east and south, but we could have a prolonged light icing event on Sunday north and west of Springfield, especially in the western hilltowns, Litchfields, Berkshires, Taconics, and southern VT and southwest NH.
To dig a little deeper, the worst icing situations occur with prolonged steady light rain falling onto a very cold surface, or even with prolonged freezing drizzle/mist.
This efficiently produces smooth glazes of ice on surfaces, like we saw on Wednesday morning, and may happen again for a time Sunday, so plan your travel accordingly.
I would seriously consider delaying Sunday morning travel if you can, and I will keep you updated to see if it continues to look like an icy mess Sunday morning.
Highs will reach the low to upper 30s and we may end with a few snow showers Sunday night as temps drop into the upper teens to low 20s. In other words, the mild air is going to be more anemic, so stay tuned for updates.
Then what?
ARCTIC HAMMER TIME
Brutally cold Arctic air will swing through the region, with the Tropopause (the delineation between the Troposphere where our weather occurs and the Stratosphere, the next atmospheric layer up towards Space) descending closer to Earth’s surface than usual, only a few miles up, which will allow very cold air to make it to the surface.
The nice piece is that we’ll have plenty of sunshine Monday through Wednesday, but after 20s for highs on Monday, lows are diving into the low single digits, with highs on Tuesday only in the single digits to low teens!! BRRRR!!!!
In fact, wind chills are likely to be well below zero by Tuesday morning, which will likely require the NWS to hoist Wind Chill Advisories in a couple of days when we get closer.
Lows Tuesday night will be below zero in many areas, so get ready for Arctic chill!
We will milden up by later in the week when some light rain or snow will be possible, and then another winter storm is possible the following weekend.
There are also a number of signals that cold will be continuing to visit us into the third week of January, so I don’t think we’re done with wintry weather after a very mild start that pushed through late Autumn and into the first week or two of the Winter of 2021-2022.
Winter has arrived.
Have a great day and please post any final snow reports below with any pics! Thank you so much!
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6:00AM-FRI: SNOW HAS OVERSPREAD THE WMASS REGION… HEAVIER SNOW BANDS FALLING IN NORTHEAST CT, EASTERN HAMPDEN COUNTY, AND SOUTHERN WORCESTER COUNTY… OVER 6″ HAS FALLEN IN WINDHAM COUNTY CT ALREADY, WHERE THIS STORM WILL OVERPERFORM… LIGHTER AMOUNTS NORTH AND WEST… PLEASE POST PICS OF CURRENT CONDITIONS WHERE YOU ARE… HOW MUCH SNOW DO YOU HAVE SO FAR? SNOW ENDS BY LATE MORNING…
Good morning everybody, roads are snow covered already, as our storm moved right in. Lighter snow is falling north and west of Springfield, but east, southeast and south of there, snow has been falling moderately to heavily. I’ll run through more details below, but first I’ve got a note from our local and delicious sponsor, #TandemBagelCo, with a new location in West Springfield, MA.
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A NOTE FROM OUR SPONSOR:
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DISCUSSION:
Good morning everybody, low pressure is exiting the DelMarVa Peninsula and will track southeast of Nantucket this morning.
As you can see in the attached radar shot, the band of subsidence northwest of the heavier snow band over central and eastern CT up into easternmost Hampden County and southern Worcester County into EMass has set up, so we’re seeing the expected lighter snows along and west of the I-91 corridor.
This storm is overperforming in northeast CT, southern CMass and EMass, where more of a 6-12″ snowfall should result given efficient snowflake production, closer to the area of strongest atmospheric lift.
What goes up must come down due to gravity, so much of WMass is on the “sinking side” of the equation.
Still, roads are snow covered, so give yourself extra time if you have to travel.
Snow will continue through late morning and wind down between 10am-noon or so from west to east.
I had bumped amounts from 1-4″ up to 2-5″ last night for all of WMass except for eastern Hampden County, Tolland/Windham Counties in northeast CT and southern CMass, with 1-3″ expected in SVT and SWNH.
There may be some areas that see less than inch in SVT/SWNH, or less than 2″ in the WMass/northwest CT region described above, as well.
For eastern Hampden County, Tolland/Windham Counties in northeast CT and southern CMass, I still think 4-8″ will cover it, but wouldn’t be surprised to see over 8″ in parts of Windham County CT especially, and up into border towns with southeast Worcester County.
As of 6am a heavy snow band is running through eastern Hampden County.
Please post your snow reports below (and list your town), and any pics or vids!
We’ll improve in the afternoon with partial sunshine, especially west of the I-91 corridor. Could be a nice sunset!
Have a great day, and I’ll update you on the rest of the weekend in a later report, probably this evening.
I will update in a few hours…