Winter Weather Advisory for Wednesday, Jan. 23

As is usually the case, the freeze day snuck up on us, and many Superintendents and Principals made the call to delay the start of school or, in the notable case of Pittsfield, cancel for the day. We thought that there would be a delay or two, but to see 75% of the County start late or close was surprising.

It was very cold out there, but as a society we are becoming more and more cautious about these kinds of weather events. The more information we have, the more risk averse we are becoming.

Superintendents do not have to wait long to make another weather-related decision. NWS Albany has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for tomorrow. Temps did not get up to 20 today, as was forecasted, so enough cold air will be in place to cause ice tomorrow when the next weather system rolls into Berkshire County.

Fortunately for Superintendents, the timing of the WWA is between 9 AM and 6 PM. Some schools may have to cancel after school activities if the sleet and freezing rain holds on through the afternoon, but the GSD Staff thinks the changeover to plain ol' rain will occur before the release of the afternoon buses. Driving in higher elevation towns could be tricky tomorrow afternoon, so take it slow in those places that are slow to warm up.

Temps right now (early evening Tuesday) are as low as they are going to get for the next three and half days. We are forecasted to shoot way up into the mid 40s tomorrow and even hit 50 on Thursday before the cold air creeps back in and returns us to our normal (for this time of year) mid/high 20s on Friday. We could see a brief period of snow midday on Thursday as the rain tapers and the cold air seeps in.

Forecast map for early next week (Monday through Wednesday). The blue represents between .5 and .75 inches of liquid, which would mean about a 6-9 inch snowfall. Light blue is 9-12 inches.

We still have our feelers out for a big storm early next week. The weather pattern is much more complicated for next week, which is why the models have not come to a consensus as they did with this past weekend's storm. Enough pieces are in place to give us a coastal storm/nor'easter, but we wouldn't put a lot of stock in that prediction right yet. Many things need to fall into place for that to happen.

If a big storm does happen, it should occur on either Monday or Tuesday (or both) of next week. And we'll be continuing to monitor it so you don't have to.