Good afternoon everybody, our storm is starting to wind down now with heavy snow still noted in the northern Berkshires, northwest hilltowns and eastern Hampshire, and eastern Franklin County into southern SWNH and northern CMass at 2:45pm.

While the 2-5″ I had mentioned should hold mostly in the upper range for some, this will have become more of a 4-7″ snowfall that trended colder and got stronger in real-time, generating a phenomena known as gravity waves leading to heavier snow rates.

Gravity waves are beautiful ripple patterns in clouds that form when there is strong lifting action, and they form these sine waves that can be seen on satellite images like the one attached (I boxed in two areas of them, the eastern one being the one that just brought heavy snow through Hampden County and north-central CT into eastern Hampshire County) and another that produced a final burst into the Berkshires.

This strong lift today was enough to loft moist air into the DGZ, or Dendritic Growth Zone, which is an area that for today occupied a zone around 2-3 miles aloft, and that produced the “fluffy flakes” that stack well during accumulation.

Our system will now wind down through 7pm or so, and quit, leaving us with a few snow showers and a fairly widespread 3-7″ snowfall with some higher amounts in spots for sure, like the Berkshires for example where some are already pushing 8″, with over half a foot in Pittsfield, MA.

And if that weren’t enough, our coastal system has trended westward and could also come in two pulses, one Sunday morning with mostly light snow (though more moderate in northeast CT and southern CMass) followed by another around late afternoon into the night which combined could produce another 1-4″ of snowfall across the greater WMass region, with 3-6″ possible in CMass and northeast CT.

I will update in the morning, and will be celebrating the rest of this evening with a great group of people and my sweetie who has supported my weather reporting more than any other person on Earth – I’m a lucky man.

Please let me know how much snow you have on the ground, and I bet I’m gonna see a lot of 3″ to 7″ amounts, with some 7″+.

Thanks for your reports, safe travels, Dave.