FIrst Storm of the Season -- Midday Report

The one guarantee about this storm is that it will snow. Yay, snow! Glad to have you back. All of Berkshire County will see a fresh blanket of snow by the morning commute.

But here are the big questions for this storm:

*Will it start too soon?
*Will a dry slot keep totals down?
*Will the road crews have time to clean the streets in time for the morning commute?
*Will the back end of the storm necessitate the closing of schools?
*Will the Winter Weather Advisory get updated to a Winter Storm Warning for Northern Berkshire County?

Image courtesy of WNYT Albany

Because we have so many questions with this storm, we are going to keep our prediction where it is: half the schools in the county will have a full day of school; half will have a delay or snow day.

We're are, however, seeing three encouraging signs for wider spread delays and snow days: 1) the storm may not start out as early as forecasters thought; 2) the storm totals are right on the Advisory/Warning edge, so there is a chance a Warning could get announced later today once more runs of the models come in; 3) predictions are coming in for snow rates of at least an inch an hour this evening.

You can see from the map above who is most likely to get the delay or snow day tomorrow--Farmington River, Central Berkshire, Adams-Cheshire are all more likely because the east-facing slopes could get significantly more snow than western portions of the Berkshires. But we all should know by now that any slight shift in the storm track could change the snow totals in this map drastically.

If you really want that three-day weekend, now would be a good time to rehearse your favorite snow dance. We're going to need a little luck to get this storm to cooperate and deliver the 6+ inches we'll need for across-the-board snow days. for the County.