This storm is, simply put, being a pain in the backside. Perhaps it's the instant gratification world we live--we want a snow day and we want it now!--but would it really be that hard for Old Man Winter to give us a slam dunk, no bones about it, guaranteed snow day?
While we still think many schools will be called off tomorrow, we can not say with certainty that all students will have the day off, especially if you live in South County. We were much more confident about the chances for a clean sweep for snow days for all schools as of yesterday, but we're definitely hesitant to make that call today.
The reason for our waffling is the on-going issue with the frontal boundary. We're seeing too many varying reports about when the temperature will drop below freezing in Berkshire County. The models are showing rain, sleet, or snow at 6 AM tomorrow. They are still all over the place.
There are, however, two pieces of good news:
1) NWS Albany has upgraded Northern Berkshire County to a Winter Storm Warning. This means meteorologists are confident that Pittsfield and towns north will get 3+ inches of snow plus an extended period of sleet and/or freezing rain.
2) If it's not already snowing by then, sleet and freezing rain are expected in the middle of the day. Some parts of the Berkshires will see over a quarter inch of sleet and ice, which is significant. Travel will be discouraged. It will not make sense for districts to have early releases as the release could be right in the middle of the sleet part of the storm.
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| A reminder that orange is freezing rain and purple is sleet. This map is for noon on Friday. |
We'll update again tonight, but we're still holding the Confidence Meter at 75% for North County and are dropping it to 60% in South County due to the warm air holding on longer than we would like.
If you have a favorite snow sweater, dance or ritual, tonight will be a good night to break it out.
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