Western Mass Weather for April 16, 2021 (updated 6:30pm)

OUR STORM IS DYING AND WILL EXIT EAST TONIGHT… IT’S POSSIBLE SOME HIGH TERRAIN RESDIENTS COULD SEE AN ADDITIONAL COATING TO 1″ OR SO BY SATURDAY MORNING… SCATTERED RAIN, SLEET AND SNOW SHOWERS WIND DOWN AFTER MIDNIGHT, AND SOME AREAS WILL SEE NO ADDITIONAL PRECIP… ACCUMULATIONS VARIED FROM ZERO TO 15″ ACROSS THE REGION… IF YOU HAVE ANY FINAL MEASUREMENTS OR PICS (OR CONDITION REPORTS) I’D BE SUPER GRATEFUL FOR THEM IN THE COMMENTS BELOW… 6:30PM FRI…

Good evening everybody, um, well, that was a rather anomalous blip in the Time-Space Continuum last night and today for many of us, was it not?

Some of the reports you sent in were astounding, like 12″ in Shutesbury, 14″ in Northfield, MA and Marlboro, VT, 9″ in Belchertown, MA, almost a foot in Monson, MA, 9″ in Pelham, MA, 7″ in Ashfield, MA, 9″ in Readsboro, VT, and on and on and on. I think someone in Dublin, NH (Monadnock Region of southwest NH) was close to 18″? Man, oh man.

This was a highly elevation-dependent late-season Nor’easter where a few hundred feet in elevation or a few miles in distance made substantial differences in road conditions, snow accumulations, and overall impact from this storm.

Areas in Bernardston got nothing, whereas parts of Amherst got 5″. These storms are always tough to nail down.

I would love to hear your final measurements below if you made them, and what you’re seeing in your neck of the woods.

At about 3 or 4pm, our storm’s surface low pressure center, mid levels centers, and upper level center “stacked” vertically on top of each other. This is also known as occlusion, where incoming warmer air at the surface is totally cutoff from the surface low center, and colder air wraps around the entire system.

This causes a cessation of rising air and hence precipitation shield regeneration, and the storm begins to weaken, dissipate, and die out, which is happening now.

There are still some pinwheeling light to moderate bands of rain, sleet and/or snow rotating westward and in from the ocean, and this will continue through the evening in spots.

Some times it will be dry, other times drizzly, other times rainy or snowy, and we can’t rule out some additional coatings up to an inch or so overnight, especially east of the I-91 corridor MA and CT, but that goes for the Berkshires and western hilltowns up into SVT as well.

Regardless, the bulk of the storm ended around mid-afternoon, and temps then rose a bit, and are currently in the 35-40º range more or less (some lower than that, some higher).

Northerly and northeast winds may gust up to 20mph or so overnight and lows will drop into the low to mid 30s, with patchy fog possible.

The weekend will improve, and the snow will start to melt in earnest, and be gone by early next week!

Saturday looks mostly cloudy and cool, with highs in the upper 40s to low 50s with lows in the mid 30s.

Partly sunny skies develop on Sunday, and highs will be milder, reaching into the mid to upper 50s with lows in the mid to upper 30s.

Then by early next week your regularly-scheduled Spring broadcast will return after this vile wintry interruption, and mostly sunny skies will develop with high pressure moving into the region for Monday and Tuesday.

Highs will reach the upper 50s to low 60s on Monday, and then the mid 60s to low 70s on Tuesday, before some more rain showers arrive Wednesday with a seasonable cool-down for the second half of the week.

I will firm up some more week-head details tomorrow morning, but for now (while I will keep an eye on things and update if needed), I am going to enjoy my evening repast, pet my favorite Maine Coon Cat who has a more sophisticated vocabulary than some human beings that I’ve met, and ease into relaxation mode this evening.

I mean, who knows, maybe I’ll go COMPLETELY crazy, and watch reruns of Jacques Pépin on PBS! It IS Friday, after all!!
#PartyBoy

Have a great night, and thank you so much for all of your reports, it’s helpful to me and the community here.

Snow haters, hang in there, it’s going away soon!!

G’night… D
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EAST OF I-91 IS HIGHEST IMPACT FROM THIS LATE-SEASON SNOWSTORM IN TERMS OF AMOUNTS AND EARLIER EXPECTATIONS… SOME LOCALIZED AREAS IN EASTERN FRANKLIN / HAMPSHIRE / HAMPDEN COUNTIES INTO WESTERN AND NORTHERN WORCESTER COUNTY COULD SEE A FOOT OR SO, WITH 5-10″ COVERING MOST OF THOSE AREAS, WITH A NUMBER OF FOLKS SEEING THE HIGH END OF THAT RANGE… SNOW WILL VARY IN INTENSITY THIS AFTERNOON, BUT ANOTHER HEAVIER BAND COULD WORK INTO AREAS WEST OF THE I-91 CORRIDOR LATER THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING… SNOW ACCUMULATIONS SHOULD RESUME FOR PARTS OF THE WESTERN HILLTOWNS AND EASTERN BERKSHIRES INTO SVT THROUGH THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING.. OUR LATE SEASON WINTER STORM CONTINUES… 12:25PM FRI

Good afternoon everybody, our storm system has been producing an incredibly wide array of meteorological conditions across the region I cover, which is 50 miles in every direction of Northampton Center.

The main issue that has transpired, is that our storm is vertically stacking (upper low on top of mid level low on top of surface low, which weakens it) later than expected.

In addition, our surface low tracked more easterly than expected, pulling colder air in at all levels into our region, and the upper low was allowed to strengthen it this morning as it positioned around Nantucket and started slowly bobbing north, with a current position over about Eastham or Wellfleet on the outer Cape.

This slung a huge swatch of heavy snow westward through CMass and into northeast CT and eastern portions of the WMass region, especially with any gain in elevation, even 100 feet.

I took a ride into Amherst, Belchertown and Hadley, and was truly amazed at the stark differences in snow accumulation and intensity 3-4 miles from Amherst to Hadley, as well as road conditions near Southeast St. in Amherst compared to Rt. 9 on the Amherst/Belchertown line was almost snow covered and getting very slippery!

Moderate to heavy snow continues in northeast CT, eastern Hampden County, eastern Hampshire County and portions of eastern Franklin County and southwest NH.

However, as the storm bobs north and then gets pulled back westward toward the Cape Cod Canal and southeastern-most MA later this afternoon, some breaks in intensity are developing as the storm occludes and wraps some drier air westward into our region, which I have to say, is a first for me. I have never seen a storm dry slot from west to west, usually it’s southwest to northeast or south to north in our neck of the woods.

Our storm will eventually stop its retrograde and just sit and spin, sending waves of rain and snow showers through our region.

This should cause some additional bands of moderate to at times heavy snow to track into the western hills and eastern Berkshires and SVT.

Northwest CT may end up getting the complete shaft snow-wise with this system, given the way it has developed, but I was never thinking more than a coating to 2″ for western and southern Litchfield County with 2-5″ for northern and especially northeastern portions of the county, east into northwest Hartford County.

Again, the biggest change came this morning when I originally thought 2-5″ would cover eastern portions of the WMass region into west-central and southwest Worcester County down into northeast CT, and the lower elevations of those areas should see that, but higher elevations should end up with 5-10″, and a couple areas could see a foot.

The southern Greens of VT also seem to have seen about 4-8″ of snow, with only the highest peaks exceeding 10″, though I would love to get some reports from southern VT and southwest NH in the comments below!

SE VT and western Cheshire were thought to get 2-5″, but all of Cheshire may see more like 5-10″, which is the original thought for the Monadnock Region.

The Pioneer Valley along the CT River from Hartford to Greenfield has gotten a few coatings, but mostly just rain or snow that melts, or mixed rain/snow with little to no accumulation, and that should continue.

Anyway, we still have the afternoon and evening to go with this storm and its varied impacts across this wide region.

What are you seeing where you live? How much snow do you have? Can you post some current pics? Thank you all for your reports so far today!!!

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HOW MUCH SNOW AT YOUR PLACE? PLEASE POST REPORTS BELOW… WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY HAS BEEN UPGRADED TO WINTER STORM WARNING IN N. WORCESTER COUNTY… A BURST OF MODERATE TO HEAVY SNOW IS WORKING INTO EASTERN PORTIONS OF WMASS, ALL OF CMASS AND NORTHEAST CT AS OUR SURFACE LOW IS FURTHER SOUTHEAST AND WILL BACK INTO CAPE COD VS. SOUTHEAST MA… THIS MEANS ACCUMULATING SNOW IS NOT OVER, THOUGH MARGINAL TEMPS WILL CAUSE FLIPS BETWEEN RAIN AND SNOW IN LOWER ELEVATIONS TODAY… ABOVE 1000 FEET IS WHERE THE MOST SNOW FALLS THROUGH EARLY AFTERNOON… 6:50AM FRI

Good morning everybody, please please let me know what you are seeing in terms of snow, sleet or rain, the intensity of the precipitation, and how much snow you have on the ground, and mention your town, too!

Is snow just on grassy surfaces? It is covering pavement? Road conditions? Your ground truth would be super appreciated.

Our surface low has tracked further east than expected, just south of Nantucket, and is expected to back northwest over Cape Cod later this morning into the afternoon and halt its westward progression.

Temperatures are cold this morning, between 30-34º, and in the mid to upper 20s in the high terrain of southern VT.

This has me concerned for higher elevation snow impacts east of I-91 today in CT, MA and NH.

In fact, heavier precipitation in the form of snow is backing westward into WMass, CMass, and northeast CT, mostly east of I-91, so I am concerned for worsening road conditions in the higher elevation areas in that part of our region during the morning commute.

This is due to the storm developing near Nantucket and directing moisture northwestward right into the CMass/WMass region, which will continue this morning.

Additional snow accumulations will occur through the morning across the region in the higher-elevation areas, but if it snows hard enough early enough before the sun angle can get up too high allowing temps to come up, even lower elevation areas east of I-91 could get some snow to accumulate.

Because temps are marginal, the precipitation intensity and your elevation will be a big part of what determines whether rain or snow is falling, with intensity leading that determination at times, and elevation at others.

I’ve gotten reports of 5″ in northern Worcester County, just wet ground with air snow in Northampton, 10″ up at Mt. Snow (see attached), a coating to an inch or so in Hampden County areas and the southern Berkshires, 1-2″ up in Cheshire, MA, 4″ in Windham County VT (Athens) it runs the gamut, so your reports will be very helpful in determining the current layout of this storm’s impacts.

The brunt of the remainder of this system is from now through early/mid afternoon, by which time it should stop its stall over the Cape, and start exiting east with time into the evening, but rain and snow showers will be expected after that, into the evening.

As a reminder, these are my totals from last night, and I am going to leave them as is, knowing some of these will be off, but with a late-season storm like this, I’m not going to nitpick further.

LATEST SNOW AMOUNT THOUGHTS
10-15″
–Southern Green Mountains of southern VT in the high terrain above 2000 feet

5-10″
–Southern VT between 1000-2000 feet
–Northeastern Berkshires
–Western Hampshire County hilltowns
–Western Franklin County hilltowns
–The Monadnock Region and high terrain in eastern Cheshire County of SW.NH
–Northern Worcester County along and north of the Rt. 2 corridor, especially highest peaks

2-5″
–Eastern Windham County VT (Brattleboro) into western Cheshire County NH (Keene)
–The northwestern Berkshires
–The northern Taconics of E.NY
–Eastern Franklin County highlands near/above 1000 feet
–Central Worcester County north into the lower terrain areas of northern Worcester County
–Southwestern Worcester County
–Eastern Hampden County high terrain from Palmer/Monson east
–Northern Litchfield County high terrain
–Northwest Hartford County
–Northern Tolland and Windham Counties in NE.CT

C-2″
–Southern Berkshires in the Housatonic Valley
–Southern Litchfield County
–Central/Southern Taconics of E. NY
–Pioneer Valley from Greenfield south to Hartford (though Greenfield north to Brattleboro could get into the 2-5″ zone)
–Southeastern Worcester County
–Southern halves of the 4 northern CT counties
–Some of these areas may just see rain/snow mix, or snow that doesn’t accumulate much, if at all

I will update later this morning, please post your pics and vids below along with your reports, thank you!!

By |2021-04-16T18:31:30-04:00April 16, 2021|Current Forecast|

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