Good morning folks, I hope you had an enjoyable day yesterday, however you chose to spend it! We have accumulating snow on the way for tonight, ending by early Saturday morning, so travel will go downhill before midnight as the heaviest snow moves in 8pm to midnight from west to east.

We have cold high pressure set up over us and to our north, so we are calm and very cold with temps in the single digits and teens with a few below-zero readings in SVT and far NW.MA.

This will set the stage for snow tonight, as high pressure is pushed northeast and out of the way of a southeastwardly diving low pressure system. This storm will push out of the Great Lakes and towards the Mid-Atlantic region with an area of stronger lift on its northeastern flank that’ll take a snowy swipe at southwestern New England tonight.

The snow will be fluffy and should more easily stack up tonight, during the coldest part of the 24-hour day/night cycle.

This means that after highs in the low to mid 20s today, clouds will increase and snow will arrive to the CT/MA-NY border around 7pm to 8pm and easily start to accumulate given our antecedent cold air setup.

Lows will fall into the teens, so travel will go downhill quickly in areas west of the CT River Valley in northwest CT and southwest MA where moderate to heavy snow should accumulate readily.

Rates of 1” to 2” per hour are possible south of the Pike in the southern Berkshires, western half of Hampden County down into Litchfield County, far western Hartford County and bac, into the central and southern Taconics of eastern NY, with lesser rates north and east.

The bulk of the accumulation falls before midnight or 1am, generally speaking, so if you are out tonight, be aware of this incoming snowy hit in the aforementioned areas.

Snow will taper to a light to moderate snowfall in the pre-dawn hours and quit by around dawn, leaving us with a brighter Saturday.

SNOW TOTALS
–4-8” for central/southern Berkshires / Taconics, western Hampden County, and Litchfield County CT into westernmost Hartford County

–2-5” for northern Berkshires, SVT, western Hampshire/Franklin Counties through the Pioneer Valley in WMass north of Springfield, and northeast CT

–1-3” for SWNH, CMass, and possibly into easternmost Franklin and Hampshire Counties further east from the main brunt of our storm

—BUST POTENTIAL: This system could bust a bit higher by adding 1-3” more on these ranges

Fair weather returns by Saturday noon with highs in the upper 20s to low 30s, and lows in the teens under clear skies for Saturday night.

Sunday starts off partly sunny with milder highs in the 30s, but another storm will be tracking northwest of us, putting us on its milder side.

With cold-enough air in place, we should see mixed precip break out Sunday night causing some icy travel in the high terrain, followed by a change to rain with some ice potentially lingering in northern MA, SVT/SWNH for a time.

Monday should be mostly rain for folks into the afternoon, then we’ll taper off as a cold front sweeps the region.

This will deliver more Canadian cold and strong westerly wind gusts of 30-50mph late Monday night through Tuesday with highs in the 20s.

By New Year’s Eve and Day, we should moderate a bit, but will still experience cold temperatures with fair weather, so be prepared to bundle up for New Year’s Eve and Day events.

Have a great day, and I will update again before this evening with an update on our incoming light to moderate snowstorm.

Thanks for reading, Dave.

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