Good early evening folks, a quick hitting, fluffy snowfall is on the way and with cold antecedent conditions in place, dry air, and temps only in the mid teens to low 20s. As our storm continues to track southeast (staying to our southwest, keeping cold locked in) this will allow for snow to overspread the region between 6pm from along the CT-MA/NY state line east to 10pm in central MA and far northeast CT.

Travel conditions will go downhill quickly, as snow readily sticks to the cold surface with lows in the teens tonight.

At first snow will evaporate as it falls into dry air at the surface, but moderate to heavy precipitation is heading east out of NY state and toward southwestern New England as of this writing and knocking on our door.

It will only be a matter of time before precipitation from above loads the column with enough moisture from top down to produce snow at the surface.

SLIPPERY CONDITIONS DEVELOP
This is a front-loaded storm, meaning that a punch of heavier snow will move in from west to east between 6pm-10pm, and fall between 8pm-Midnight or so.

HEAVY SNOWFALL RATES
Areas like the Berkshires, western hilltowns, souther Pioneer Valley south of Greenfield and northwest CT and north-central CT may see snowfall rates of 1-1.5″ per hour, and up to 2″ per hour in the far southern Berkshires and Litchfield County CT between 8pm-midnight, with moderate to heavy intensity snow in areas north and east of those regions.

After midnight or so, the big bowling ball slug of heavier snow responsible for heavier snow rates will continue southeast and away from us, leaving us with periods of light to moderate snow through the dawn, by which time it should wind down into the mid morning.

SNOW TOTALS
I’m still sticking with 4-8″ of fluffy snow in the Berkshires, western Hampden and western Hampshire Counties down into Litchfield County and Hartford County as this is a fast, quick-hitting system with lighter snow after midnight, though I will not be surprised if those areas bump up to a widespread 5-10″, with up to a foot in southwest CT (which is out of my coverage area).

The rest of us in SVT, SWNH, the Pioneer Valley points east through CMass and in northeast CT likely end up with 2-5″ and probably the high end of that range the way things look now, with some half foot amounts mixed into those areas.

I will keep an eye on things and update later around 8pm or so when the heaviest snow is expected to move through the region.

And if this weren’t enough, we have what looks like freezing rain / ice storm developing for Sunday night, which could cause more travel headaches as the holiday weekend comes to a close.

Please post any condition reports on my Facebook page at link below if you have FB, especially when you first see snow starting to fall in your neighborhood.

Thanks very much, Dave.