Don't Let It Fool You

For ease of use, we'll call this the April Fool's Day storm. And it does appear to have some trickery up its sleeve.

More signs are pointing toward a full school day or an early release tomorrow for the northern half of Berkshire County. We've had no movement on the Watch to a Warning, and Advisories have not yet been posted for South County. That could all change this afternoon and evening, though, so don't set anything in stone just yet.

A bold call from The Weather Channel.

The latest run of the models indicates the brunt of the storm will hit just to our north, northwest, and east. The Weather Channel's map appears to be very aggressive, calling for over a foot for our neighbors in Franklin and Hampshire County. We'll be surprised if we see totals that high.

But just the fact that there's such widespread difference in the predicted snow fall totals means that we can't sleep on this storm. Given the winter we've had, it would not be wise to underestimate this storm's potential. The moisture will be there. It all comes down to how long it stays as snow.

One of our favorite maps: the NOAA Probabilistic Snowfall Map.

The GSD Staff unanimously agrees that school will be in session tomorrow. If this were the first storm of the season, we would probably see full snow days because of (1) the novelty of it and (2) there's house money to play with when you haven't used up any snow days yet. But because the end of the school year is hastily approaching July 1, Supers will be quick to pump the brakes on a snow day for tomorrow. The early release, however, is very much in play for North Berkshire schools as conditions should deteriorate as the day progresses...as long as it stays all snow.

The big stumbling block for our staff is the temperature. We will get close to 32 degrees tonight but not beneath it. Snow can still fall when the temperature is above freezing, but often it takes a while to stick to the roads in those situations. Roads should be passable tomorrow morning unless the storm suddenly speeds up and the snow starts falling around 4 AM instead of 6 AM. We'll have to wait until later to know exactly when the snow should start to fall.

We stay informed to keep you informed!