[WINTER WEATHER ADVISORIES HAVE BEEN HOISTED FOR THE WESTERN HILLTOWNS, BERKSHIRE COUNTY AND LITCHFIELD COUNTY FOR TONIGHT INTO EARLY THURSDAY MORNING AS A TRIO OF MIXED, MESSY, AND FAIRLY MODERATE STORM SYSTEMS IS SET TO IMPACT THE WMASS REGION THROUGH EARLY NEXT WEEK… MORE SNOW/ICE/RAIN NEW YEAR’S NIGHT INTO EARLY SAT MORNING, AND MORE OF THE SAME SUNDAY NIGHT INTO MONDAY MORNING… 7:10AM WED]

Good morning folks, the Earth keeps spinning ’round with various temperature, moisture and pressure differences giving rise to our wind and weather as the whole system tries to balance out, so let’s get into it because there’s a bunch to talk about with three systems on the way, none of which will be major storms, but that doesn’t meant they won’t cause some travel problems along the way, especially in northwest MA down through the southern Berkshires and northwest CT, along with southern VT and southwest NH and along the Route 2 corridor.

SUMMARY
–We’re starting off cold this morning with temps in the upper teens and 20s, but as a weak warm front moves through, mostly cloudy skies are expected with some sunny breaks, maybe a snow shower early
–Highs will reach the low to mid 30s with southwest winds gusting to 20mph at times
–A storm system will be tracking northeast through the Great Lakes and send a flattened-out (i.e. more west-southwest to east-northeast) precipitation shield into the region before midnight
–Temps should drop to near freezing tonight, and so we’re expecting freezing rain and some sleet in northwest MA, the Berkshires, the western hilltowns, Litchfield Hills and southern VT into southwest NH
–We could see ice accretions of up to tenth of an inch or so in spots, so surfaces (including roads) are likely to ice up overnight
–The Pioneer Valley down into northern CT and east into CMass should be mostly rain, but some high terrain spots could see pockets of icing too, with sleet or freezing rain
–This mess comes to an end tomorrow morning, and high pressure will build into the region, clearing things out for New Year’s Eve (not that there’s much going on this year).
–Thursday will feature highs in the upper 30s to low 40s under mostly cloudy skies, with lows in the mid teens to low 20s as clear the skies out and enter what will hopefully be a MUCH better year in 2021
–For New Year’s Day on Friday, we will start off chilly and mostly sunny as high pressure departs the region
–Highs will reach the mid to upper 30s as clouds increase in the later afternoon
–At night, we will cloud up and before midnight should see a mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain move into the region with light snow and ice accumulations possible into Saturday morning, by which time we should end as rain as milder air moves in
–Saturday looks rainy early, with partly sunny skies by afternoon and highs in the low to mid 40s with lows in the upper 20s as we dry it out
–Sunday will cloud right back up as our third storm develops along the coast and passes to our south
–We won’t have a lot of cold air in place, or to work with to our north, but it might be cold enough for a light to moderate type wet snow (maybe a 1-4″ type event) Sunday night into Monday

There are lot of details to work out, but the bottom line is that our weather is turning inclement over the next week with multiple wintry precipitation chances, so stay tuned and I will keep you updated.

I will post an updated report this evening about tonight’s icing event for our northwestern/hilly zones.

Have a great day!

P.S. With blocking high pressure developing next month over southeastern Canada and Greenland, the storm tracks may continue to come through New England, and if we can get some Arctic outbreaks into the region (more likely during the second half of January into February), we may get a winter out of this winter yet. Stay tuned…