Storm Nemo/Diamond: Thursday Night Update

From what we can tell, many schools have made the decision to release students early. We know that Greylock, Lee, Pittsfield, Berkshire Hills/Monument (thanks for the FB note!), Southern Berkshire, BaRT, BCC, and MCLA have opted for the early release. The only straight-up cancellation we know of is the McCann/Northern Berkshire Vocational School District.

The timing of GSD's announcement of 100% confidence in the the early release decision and Superintendents' decisions to let school out at 11 am or noon is purely coincidental. Or so we have been led to believe.

The wisdom behind the early release call the night before is that it gives Supers the opportunity to call an audible tomorrow morning and cancel school if the storm starts to heat up a little earlier than expected. What we won't see is a school district changing from an early release to a full day of school. You might have a few angry taxpayers if that situation were to happen.

So, what is the likelihood that your school district will be convinced that the early release should become a delay? This is the $60,000 question and fortunately the crack staff at GSD has an answer.

Light snow will o'erspread our area after midnight. A quick check of the radar right now shows us that phasing is slowly starting to take place and a few snow showers are on our western doorstep. The bulk of the light snow from the northern low will pass to the north, and the big shot of moisture from the southern low is still down there in the Carolinas. Given the relative sparsity of precipitation right now, we think most of those early releases will NOT be adjusted in the preferred direction. We hope we're wrong, but the snow will be fairly innocuous tomorrow morning during the commute.

Thanks to WNYT.

Still, tomorrow will be a great day for snow lovers. Go to class, take care of business, and get back home and enjoy the snow. The storm will be at its peak in the late afternoon and evening when the snow could come down in the Berkshires at a 3" per hour rate--that's outrageous, and we can't wait.