Evening Update

The GSD Staff successfully made it back from our conference in Boston, which explains the dearth of activity at this site this afternoon. We can report it is snowing from Boston all the way back to Williamstown. This is a big storm. Kudos to the road crews of Berkshire County who were the far-and-away winners of "The Cleanest Roads" award today.

Not to take anything away from the fine work these folks do, but a big reason they've been able to keep up with this storm is that the storm has not quite lived up to its initial billing. We still have a long way to go yet, but we might not get the 13-14" snow totals that many meteorologists thought we would.

As of 5:30 PM, we have a solid 4 inches on the ground at GSD Headquarters. We had a lull in the snow for a few hours this afternoon, but now there are some heavier bands moving through the area now that will last for the next few hours (until 8 PM).

As we wrote about yesterday, we will see the snow stop completely between 10 and midnight, but then the upper level low will generate another period of persistent and moderate snow (3-5 more inches). On the map above, this upper level low pressure system is generating the snow back in Toronto and the rest of Ontario. This part of the storm is headed right for us and should still be with us during the morning commute, making conditions very messy out there.

Throughout Monday, then, we'll see snow showers and periods of light snow. Unfortunately, we're not going to know how hard it's snowing because there will be considerable blowing and drifting of snow throughout the day. A High Wind Watch is possible for tomorrow. Once the wind does pick up, it will be very hard to keep the roads clean even though the snow from the sky will be lighter. 

We know Superintendents are entirely flustered by this flurry (!) of snow days in the last five school days, but the reality is that roads are going to be a mess in the morning and throughout the day. We think most districts will not risk and will cancel school. If some districts go with a delay, those schools will be South County schools. We will be very surprised if any school has a full day tomorrow.

Some districts will call in their verdict tonight. We'll run a separate post if and when those come in. Some schools outside of Berkshire County have already made calls but the list is not that long yet.

Be patient. The heavier snow is yet to come.