Good morning folks, we’ve got an active weather day ahead, and active weather days expected for Sunday and again Tuesday/Wednesday when a plowable snowstorm may be pushing through our region which would be quite a “Welcome to December” shock for many. While it’s not set in stone, the signal is consistent and it’s growing, so my digital periscope is up and circling 360º and I expect to hear more tappity-tap sounds than normal.

As for our active set up today, we have an upper trough (i.e. an area of lower than average pressures aloft that helps cool us and produce more active, stormy, and/or windy conditions) that will track east through southern Quebec.

This feature has already helped to induce lake effect snow banding which is set to first push into Bennington County (the southwestern-most county in VT) early this morning by or after 8am.

With time during the later morning and afternoon period, that band (which is connected to Lake Huron AND Lake Ontario) will slowly sink south into the northern and central Berkshires and northwest hilltowns, and eventually into the southern Berkshires and northwest CT by late today and tonight, prior to its fizzle phase where it dies out overnight.

As of now, that band is expected to pulse strongest and last longest over the northern and central Berkshires, northern and central Taconics of eastern NY, far southern Bennington County, and potentially into western Franklin County and western Hampshire County where we should easily see 1-3” of snow, with some folks in the west-facing high peaks seeing more like 3-6”.

Road conditions could change quickly if you are out and about in these areas, with blowing snow, and lowered visibility, so be ready to slow down and stay alert if conditions change on the roads, especially in the high passes.

In southern Berkshire County, western Hampden County and northern Litchfield County it should be more like a coating to 2” or so, with scattered coating to 1” amounts anywhere in WMass, southeast VT, southwest NH, and no accumulation expected in CMass or the rest of northern CT.

Westerly wind gusts will blow 30-45mph today as cold air moves in aloft and the surface “warms” a bit causing stronger wind to mix to the surface.

With highs in the 30s, wind chills will be in the 20s! Lows tonight will dip into the mid to upper 20s under partly cloudy skies with wind continuing early, and decreasing after midnight.

Saturday looks like the pick of the weekend with sunny skies and cold highs in the mid 30s to low 40s as northwest gusts sit down but still kick up to 25mph or so at times. Lows will sink into the low to mid 20s as clouds increase ahead of our next warm front (which will NOT spike temps to 60º like the last one, not even close, actually).

Precip with the front should arrive early enough to produce snow or mix in the greater WMass region, lasting as wintry precip longer in the high terrain as the valley warms pretty quickly, changing to rain.

We all change to rain and rise into the 40s on Sunday, with showers tapering off at night as lows drop into the mid 20s to low 30s after the precip quits.

For Monday, a cold front sweeps through and keeps out highs mainly in the 30s with some areas maybe hitting 40º. Northwest winds will gust up to 25mph at times. Lows will be quite cold Monday night, dropping into the upper teens to low 20s as we cloud up.

This could set us up on Tuesday into Wednesday morning for our first widespread plowable snowstorm of the nascent 2025-26 winter season.
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2025 Weather Nut Holiday Apparel Sale ends Dec. 1:
(These clothes are cozy!)
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A northern stream system will try to interact with southern stream moisture to form a storm near the Tennessee Valley and track northeast off of the Mid-Atlantic coastline, staying south of New England, keeping us on the cold side of the storm.

There’s lots of time between now and then with lots of potential changes, so if you are seeing snow amounts for that system being bandied about and Snowpocalypse predictions, press the delete button in your mind on those outlets, and know that I will keep you updated on a rational, collected, steady way as to the impacts we can expect.

Will I get it right all the time?

Nope, I certainly won’t, but I will not hype for clicks out of respect for my growing audience (though I will let you know if I think things look serious, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing my job well).

That’s it for now, safe travels today, be weather aware especially in northwest MA and southwest VT, and I will update later if warranted.

Have a great day and I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving! My day was fabulous, I’m happy to say!

“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.”
― Joseph Campbell