TABLE OF CONTENTS
* Daily Celestials (Sun/Moon Data)
* Sponsor Note
* Morning Discussion
* TIP: Scroll below for sections, or read all
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
YOUR DAILY CELESTIALS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
STAR:
–OUR STAR ROSE AT: 7:18am this morning
–OUR STAR WILL SET AT: 4:28pm this evening
–TOTAL DAYLIGHT TIME: 9 hours and 10 minutes
MOON:
–OUR MOON WILL RISE AT: 8:19am this morning
–MOON RISE DIRECTION: Southeast
–OUR MOON WILL SET AT: 5:03pm this afternoon
–MOON SET DIRECTION: Southwest
–MOON PHASE: Waxing Crescent (0.6%)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A NOTE FROM OUR SPONSOR
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dave Hayes The Weather Nut is Sponsored by Individual Community Members, Patrons, and Tandem Bagel Company… No matter the weather, Tandem Bagel is always there for you at several valley locations to make your mornings brighter! With *New Pizza Bagels(!)*, along with bagels baked fresh daily (including Gluten-Free options), house-whipped cream cheese, coffee, and tons of lunch options, Tandem is the perfect quick stop for lunch, breakfast, or a coffee and bagel to go.
You can either 1) visit them in Easthampton, Northampton, Hadley, Florence, and/or West Springfield, 2) hire them to cater your next event, or 3) use their super-streamlined online ordering tool by visiting their website and clicking the “Catering” or “Order Online” links.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
YOUR MORNING DISCUSSION
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Good morning, everybody, we’ve got temps mainly in the 30s, and we’re looking forward to a pleasant last day of 2024 with mild highs in the 45-50º range with sunshine early followed by increasing clouds in the afternoon. Winds will be light southerly, and if you can, get outside and enjoy it because winter non-lovers won’t want to be outside much starting this weekend through next week and beyond, as Arctic air is on the way.
For early this evening, it just looks overcast and dry with temps in the low 40s or so, but we do have a storm tracking into the Great Lakes which will spawn a secondary low near the Appalachians tonight which will track across southeast MA and into the Gulf of Maine by tomorrow.
This will push rainfall into our region starting in northwest CT around 10pm and then proceeding through the WMass region and surrounding areas about 10:30pm to 1am, so folks outside for any First Night activities should have some rain gear, unless you’re like me and like to get wet and shove your face skyward as hydrometeors pelt your face, then fawgeddaboutit!
Temps may come up a few degrees as this happens, and northeast winds likely downslope into western Berkshire County, western Bennington County and possibly in western Worcester County up into parts of SWNH with strong gusts over 30mph late.
Lows will dip into the mid to upper 30s, and rain likely changes to wet snow in the high terrain of southern VT above 2000 feet with some snow/rain mix and far northwest MA.
Rain will quit during the morning on New Year’s Day, with a few remnant scattered showers in the afternoon, and highs climbing into the 40s for one last day before Winter resurges and kicks the mild away for likely weeks.
As the Arctic air moves in behind the departing storm Wednesday afternoon and night, westerly breezes will pick up, and remnant moisture will combine with that flow to produce an upslope snow event in the Berkshires, Taconics, southern Green Mountains of VT and northern Litchfields with light accumulations of a coating to 2” possible.
This activity should continue into Thursday as the lake effect sets up to enhance some of the upslope, but snow shrinks northward into the northern Berkshires and southwest VT, and in those areas 2-5” may fall by Thursday night.
Lows Wednesday night drop into the upper 20s to low 30s, with highs only in the 30s on Thursday as west and northwest winds really pick up and gust 30-50mph with some isolated outages possible as wind chills dip into the 20s and maybe upper teens for some.
Friday through the weekend looks breezy, colder, and partly sunny with highs in the 20s to low 30s Friday and then the 20s all weekend with lows in the teens as Winter returns.
There was a signal for snow early next week, but guidance is having a hard time with this new pattern settling in, and we may only end up with some snow showers.
To be clear based on “Cold January” post form last night, the cold is coming, and that’s the main weather story right now, as well as impact.
No one can say with any certainty that a snowy pattern will result just because the cold is arriving, so we’ll take storm chances on a more short-scale time horizon – like the rest of life, it’s one day at a time.
Have a great day, and if you still would like one of my 2025 weather wall calendars (my last one ever), I literally have only 27 left, so message me and we can put it together. Thanks.
“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.”
― Joseph Campbell