Western Mass Weather for March 12, 2022 (updated 7pm)


FINAL SNOW SHOWERS WRAPPING UP… WIND ADVISORIES CONTINUE UNTIL EARLY SUNDAY MORNING… BLOWING SNOW AT TIMES TONIGHT MAY LOWER VISIBILITY… BELOW ZERO WIND CHILLS BY DAWN TOMORROW… BLUSTERY SUNNY SUNDAY, COLD… SPRING-LIKE CONDITIONS NEXT WEEK WITH MAYBE A FEW SHOWERS BY WEDNESDAY, OTHERWISE FAIR AND MILD… 6:40pm Saturday…

Good evening everybody, just a quick final post this evening to wrap up what may be out last winter storm of this season.

Some areas in the valley only got coatings, whereas the northern Berkshires in Cheshire got 6.5″, which is the highest total I have seen so far.

Snow showers this evening will end by midnight, and clouds will start to break up, but the wind will keep up, gusting 25-40mph at times.

There are over 6000 outages in northwest CT this evening, and about a 1000 in the Berkshires and SVT, with several hundred more in southwest NH.

Lows tonight will drop into the upper single digits to low teens in southern VT, and the mid to upper teens in WMass, CMass and northern CT.

Northwest gusts to 30mph will be possible Sunday morning and wind chills will be below zero very early.

Highs will only get into the upper 20s to mid 30s under sunny skies, so we’ll have one more legit winter day, then The Mildening shall commence next week!

Highs look to reach the 40s and 50s Mon-Wed, then 50s and 60s late week! Spring is coming!

Have a great night, thank you for all of the reports, and If you also feel my work is useful I’d be grateful if you chip in what you can to my 2022 Annual Member/Supporter Drive tonight to become a part of a collective that continues to crowdfund this resource, sustaining it into its daily existence.

Plus, it feels good to give back.

https://westernmassweather.com/support-network/
(Cards, PayPal, Venmo and Check options)

Have a great night, and if you haven’t yet had a chance, you can securely contribute to my 2022 Member Drive at the link above (my drive ends in 2 weeks from Tomorrow, and I’m a bit more than 40% to my goal of 5% of my readers contributing any amount).
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[UPDATE] STORM IS MOSTLY OVER WITH SOME FOLKS GETTING LOW END OF EXPECTED SNOW TOTALS, AND OTHERS BELOW RANGE… MOSTLY FLURRIES OR SOME SNOW SHOWERS THROUGH AFTERNOON WITH WIND PICKING UP NOW WITH SOME SUNNY PEEKABOOS… THERE IS ONE FINAL BAND IN NE-PA / SE-NY THAT MAY DUST THE GROUND IN PARTS OF THE WMASS REGION BETWEEN 4-6PM… BETWEEN RAIN, SLEET AND SNOW, AND DECREASING TEMPS, WATCH FOR SLICK ROADS BY LATE AFTERNOON INTO TONIGHT, AS WELL AS BLOWING SNOW IN THE BERKSHIRES AND HILLS… 2:55pm Saturday…

Good afternoon everybody, thanks very much for all of the reports today, really very helpful.

So far the range in snow totals has been from nothing, to a coating up to 5″ region-wide, with the most in the northern Berkshires. We shouldn’t be getting much more than that.

As I mentioned in reports leading up to this, the forecasts for these later March storms tend to bust, usually low, and fewer times to the high side, but this one certainly produced less precipitation, most likely due to larger amounts of unexpected thunderstorm activity south of New England which used up some moisture, as well as not getting the lift high enough and for long enough in the best snow-making layer above our heads.

As for the rest of the afternoon and evening, we already are seeing winds gust 30-40mph in parts of the Berkshires, and we should all see gusts reaching 25-45mph at times this evening and overnight, with some blowing of snow, and very isolated outages possible, but with less snow, it will be less of an impact.

The main issue now is that temps will continue to decrease for the rest of the afternoon and night, and wet or slushy untreated roads will ice up with time, so watch out for slippery travel into tonight.

Any isolated snow showers this evening over the high terrain will abate before midnight, and lows will again drop into the teens.

For Sunday we have a blustery morning on the way with wind chills below zero for some where fresh snow pack is thickest right before dawn.

Winds should subside with time and become lighter by afternoon with highs in the 20s and 30s with mostly sunny skies, and lows in the low to mid 20s.

Spring arrives next week, so if you love winter, say a tearful goodbye today, tonight and tomorrow.

We’re turning a seasonal page, my friends… I will update early this evening, have a great rest of your afternoon!
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QUICK-HITTING LATE-WINTER STORM WITH ALL HAZARDS ON THE TABLE: FOG, RAIN, SLEET, SNOW, WIND, LOWERED VISIBILITY AT TIMES, AND POTENTIALLY BAD DRIVING CONDITIONS BETWEEN 11AM-3PM OR SO TODAY… HEAVY SNOW POSSIBLE AFTER CHANGE FROM RAIN/SLEET AROUND MID-DAY IN PIONEER VALLEY…. WINTER STORM WARNINGS, WINTER WEATHER ADVISORIES AND WIND ADVISORIES ARE ALL STILL POSTED… ISOLATED OUTAGES POSSIBLE TONIGHT IN NORTHWEST MA, THE TACONICS OF EASTERN NY, AND SOUTHERN VT WHERE HEAVIEST SNOW FROM THIS SYSTEM PILES UP… SUNDAY IS COLD, SUNNY, BLUSTERY, NEXT WEEK IS SPRING, MY 2022 MEMBER/SUPPORTER DRIVE ENDS 2 WEEKS FROM TOMORROW… SUPPORTED RESOURCES REMAIN SUSTAINED… 7:55am Saturday…

Good morning everybody, it’s mild out there with temps in the 35-40º range, along with patchy fog around the region and a few rain showers scattered about.

It’s hard to believe we’re about to move through rain, sleet, snow and wind by the end of the day and into tonight, but that’s what lies ahead, so let’s jump into the details below in a listed format, and please do click through the graphics attached as they have captions with more info as well, thanks.

MILD, FOGGY, SHOWERY AT FIRST
–We start off mild in the 30s to low 40s for some, with patchy fog in spots ,and a few showers through about 9am
–Those temps represent our high temps for the day
–However, areas in the southern valley down to Hartford and points east may rise a couple more degrees before leveling off and then falling
–Our storm is around North Carolina and southern Virginia and forecast to track right through Buzzids Bay by early afternoon, it’s a fast mover!
–A positively-tilted upper level trough sweeping east through the Great Lakes this morning will sweep the developing surface low into the Gulf of Maine where it will continue to strengthen rapidly as exits into the Canadian Maritimes
–Showers will turn into a steadier and at times, heavier precipitation shield rain moving into the greater WMass region between 9am-11am, maybe a bit earlier than that in southwest MA and northwest CT
–Temps will fall from our highs this morning into the 20s and low 30s by early afternoon, and then into the upper teens and 20s later this evening, then the teens by morning

RAIN CHANGES TO SLEET THEN SNOW
–We should all start as rain in the western hilltowns, though we may start as a rain/snow/sleet mix in the Berkshires, Taconics, and SVT, and quickly turn to snow between that 9:30am-11:30am timeframe in that high terrain sub-region west of I-91
–As the cold front approaches and tracks east and precip becomes heavier, this will help cool our surface horizontally from west to east, and vertically from top down
–This process should change rain to sleet and then moderate to heavy snow between 11am-2pm through the Pioneer Valley from eastern Windham VT through WMass down to Hartford east into western Worcester County and southwest NH
–Then between 2-4pm rain/sleet should change to snow into northeast CT and eastern Worcester County

HAZARDOUS DRIVING POSSIBLE
–Assuming this storm plays out the way it looks now, when the shift from rain/sleet to snow happens, it will be falling heavily and despite a high March sun angle, it could quickly coat roads, cool road temps, and cause a layer of ice to form on formerly wet roads underneath
–I don’t know if this will happen in a widespread area or in pockets, but the potential is there, which means you should be extra aware of road conditions if you’re out between 11am-3pm, which is the storm’s peak… told you it was a fast mover!

WINDS AND OUTAGES
–Winds (the i sounds like “IH”) will pick by early to mid afternoon, and gust into tonight, reaching speeds of 30-50mph at times
–This will combine with areas where heavy, wet snow sticks to limbs and lines to produce isolated power outages, most likely in northwest MA and southern VT
–Snow will be of a wet consistency for most of us, but by early to mid afternoon should becoming fluffier in the northernmost Berkshires up into the southern Greens of VT

STORM’S CONCLUSION
–The storm winds (the i sounds like “EYE”) down between 4-7pm from west to east with snow becoming lighter after 3pm, tapering to high elevation snow showers earlier this evening

SNOWFALL AMOUNTS
I will preface these amounts by saying this assumes the timing and events as outlined above.

I am always wary of these “just-in-time” events, as they inherently can bust, but this is how it looks like it will play out.

These amounts have not changed from yesterday.

C to 2″ (change to snow early to mid afternoon)
–Northeast CT
–Southern CMass

2″ to 5″ (change to snow late morning to early afternoon)
–Hartford, Tolland, and southern Litchfield Counties in N.CT
–CT River Valley (eastern Windham VT, central/eastern Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin Counties)
–Northern Worcester County
–Southwest NH
–Please Note: if this colder solution verifies fast enough, we could see some 5″+ amounts in eastern Franklin County up into northwest Worcester and eastern Cheshire NH

5″ to 10″ (change to snow by mid morning, or all snow)
–Berkshire County
–Northern Litchfield County
–Western Hilltowns
–Southern VT west of Brattleboro
–Taconics of eastern NY
–Please Note: some areas in the southern Greens may exceed 10″

TONIGHT, TOMORROW, NEXT WEEK
–Lingering westerlies will combine to produce wind chills below zero during the pre-dawn hours of Sunday morning in some areas
–Sunday is blustery, sunny, cold with highs in the mid 20s to mid 30s, and lows in the low 20s
–Then Pacific flow overspreads New England by Monday into next week with much milder temps and an early Spring pattern change, hooray!
–Today’s storm is literally the pattern shift from Winter to Spring, the macro air mass shift

Stick with me today, as I will be updating throughout the storm with updates every 2-3 hours to keep you current with how our storm is unfolding, along with any hiccups I see!

IT THIS USEFUL INFO?
Based on feedback from many of my readers, it has been for many of you for 9 years now.

If you also feel my work is useful I’d be grateful if you chip in what you can today, because you might enjoy being part of a collective that continues to crowdfund this resource, sustaining it into its daily existence.

Plus, it feels good to give back.
https://westernmassweather.com/support-network/
(Cards, PayPal, Venmo and Check options)

Have a great day, and if you haven’t yet had a chance, you can securely contribute to my 2022 Member Drive at the link above (my drive ends in 2 weeks from Tomorrow, and I’m about 40% to my goal of 5% of my readers contributing any amount).

By |2022-03-12T18:46:01-05:00March 12, 2022|Current Forecast|

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