Mercurial Elle: Tuesday Evening Update

Confidence is still low that this storm will affect the length of the school day tomorrow, but the latest intel we've picked up is moving in a slightly better direction and suggests Northern Berkshire County could pick up a half a foot of snow and sleet by the time the storm ends on Thursday.

As of 8 PM (tonight), it is very balmy 47 degrees, which doesn't exactly translate to winter weather. This warm air will hang on tomorrow until about noon, which is why the storm will start out as plain Jane rain. Expect the liquid precipitation to start falling between 7 and 9 AM.

8 PM radar (Tuesday). That rain is inching slowly eastward. The snow over Iowa is eventually going to reach us.

As the day progresses, though, we'll see the rain gradually become sleet, then the sleet will become snow around sundown. The storm will intensify all night and then finally settle down a few hours after midnight. The strong wind will be with us through midday on Thursday, but the heavy bands of snow will not be present in the Thursday morning commute hours. But we will see intermittent light snow showers as late as 10 AM on Thursday.

So...here's what the GSD Staff is thinking:

*No releases tomorrow (Wednesday). The ride home could be a little slick, but Superintendents will likely ask students and staff members to stick it out. After school activities and meetings could be cancelled.

*Right now (we'll update this info tomorrow once we see the radar) snow totals will range from 2-3 inches in South County and as much as 7"in very Northern Berkshire County. Delays on Thursday are on the radar.

Just a mess.

Here's the bottom line: No one should take Storm Elle for granted (mostly because of the ice), yet no one should be surprised if we see all rain and only an inch of slush.

As we have tried to make clear in earlier posts, these late winter storms are very, very unpredictable.