Storm 12.8: Latest Developments--Snow Totals Up

According to the NWS, the track has followed the ideal path to bring us our second significant storm of the season. At the NOAA discussion board late this afternoon, the consensus was that there was enough moisture to bring 8-16" for the Northern Berkshires, and those totals are reflected in the latest version of the Winter Storm Warning alert. Five to ten inches is being predicted for Southern Berkshire county.

The changeover is still several hours away. The good news is that there is a ton of moisture still to come. The bad news is the timing of the storm. It's zipping along. The Winter Storm Warning is in effect until 6 am tomorrow. This is, as they say, bad. Typically, storms end at least 2 hours before the end of the warning period. If the snow stops falling at 4 am, which seems reasonable given the radar, the GSD staff thinks the road crews will have enough time to get the main roads done in time for at least a partial day of school. Typically, road crews are a little rusty and slower for the December storms and not the well-oiled, efficient machines they are in late February. Still, their rustiness is probably not enough of a factor to move our delay to a snow day.

Right now we're still favoring a delay over a snow day. We're taking our snow day percentage up to a 50-50 proposition, and we're bumping the chance of a delay to 80%. If you're thinking about blowing off homework for the evening, you're playing with fire. We still could up the chance of a delay to 100% by the 11 pm report. Keep working on your snow dance, and check in then!