THIS MORNING IS THE COLD CORE OF THE WINTER OF 2021 AND 2022… WIND CHILL ADVISORIES LAST UNTIL 10AM FOR CMASS, WESTERN HILLTOWNS, BERKSHIRES, LITCHFIELDS, AND SVT… FAIR BUT COLD WEATHER, WITH SLOWLY INCREASING TEMPS LASTS THROUGH TUESDAY… TEMPS MODERATE INTO THE 40S WEDNESDAY WITH A FEW SHOWERS… POSSIBLE RAIN TO SNOW SETUP FOR THURSDAY INTO FRIDAY BEFORE WE COOL DOWN INTO THE WEEKEND… BLIZZARD OF 2022 WAS OFFICIALLY CONFIRMED IN EASTERN MA AND MAINE YESTERDAY… 7:55am Sunday…
Good morning everybody, thanks for all of the reports yesterday and your notes of encouragement, I really appreciate it and your readership.
As for our weather going forward, we’ve got a very cold morning out there with wind chills still well below zero and gusts of 15-20mph at times.
The Wind Chill Advisories last until 10am, and will then likely expire.
Air temps are either side of the 0º mark, some below zero, some above.
With fresh snowpack on the ground, and some pressure gradient still present as our 970mb low tracks off toward Greenland with high pressure trying to work in from the southwest.
This will produce some breezy conditions early, but those breezes will slacken by afternoon.
Highs will reach the low teens in southern VT and northwest MA into the upper teens to low 20s in the valley and points south and east under sunny skies.
For all of you snow and winter detesters out there, today and tonight is the core of winter – while we can never rule out future Arctic outbreaks, today and yesterday’s storm (being one in a series of 3 or 4 major nor’easters in our vicinity) is the end of the January Arctic pattern we’ve been in.
We’re moving back to more zonal west-east flow with a southeast ridge re-flexing its muscles, causing inside running storms, more mixed precip events at times, milder temps surging in at times, that kind of thing.
As for tonight, lows will bottom out into the low single digits above and below zero under clear skies and calm winds with strong radiational cooling over fresh snow.
For Monday and Tuesday, high pressure starts to work south of us, and temps slowly start to rise under sunny skies.
Monday highs will reach the mid to upper 20s with lows in the single digits.
Tuesday highs will reach the low to mid 30s with lows in the 20s (way more seasonable).
By Wednesday through Friday we have our next bout of inclement weather to move through, which starts with a warm frontal passage mid week.
This will cause clouds to build on Wednesday as temps warm into the low 40s for the first time in a while.
Some rain showers will move in overnight in the mid 30s.
Then Thursday and Friday may become more history as a cold front waiting in the wings to our northwest may have a ripple of low pressure develop along it, as it presses south and east. This low may have some Gulf of Mexico moisture with it, so it could be juicy, and may provide us with a rain to snow setup Thursday night into Friday as colder air works into the region.
Accumulating heavy wet snow is possible in this setup, and it would favor the Berkshires, southern VT and western hilltowns so stay tuned for updates on that piece.
We then cool down into more seasonable cold next weekend which likely doesn’t last the way cold has been lasting lately.
That’s how it looks now folks.
Take a look at that infrared satellite shot of the Blizzard of 2022 (for EMass and Maine).
Even though snow amounts ranged widely from 2″ to over 12″ for the region I cover (Pittsfield to Northampton to Sturbridge to Worcester, Bennington to Brattleboro to Keene to Monadnock, all of northern CT and everywhere in between that 10000 square mile area), nobody can deny the power and majesty of a storm that currently spreads its cloudy wings from the southern tip of Greenland all the way down through Cuba – about half the size of the United States.
Have a great day, and stay warm…