Messy Friday

Yesterday around this time we said that most students would have a full day of school today. What we meant to say was that most students would have a shortened day today. At least we were wrong in the right direction.

The timing was absolutely spot on perfect for the delays and snow days this morning. And never underestimate the psychological power of sleet. Because snow is so silent, it's sometimes easy to slough off a few inches as a nuisance snow. But sleet makes a racket bouncing off windows and is impossible to ignore. It just gets in the heads of Superintendents until they have no choice but to opt for a delay or snow day.

Tomorrow's storm is proving to be a mess. We'll see rain later tonight and then a transition to freezing rain then snow at some point tomorrow. In fact, the Winter Weather Advisory has been extended until 7 PM tomorrow. Winter Storm Warnings have been posted for places well west and north of us.

The ride home tomorrow afternoon could be flat-out ugly for folks north of I-90. After a period of heavy rain in the morning, we should see a changeover to sleet and snow. When that changeover will occur is very hard to say, but the models and forecasters are saying midday for Berkshire County. We should see 1-3 inches of snow tomorrow by the time it ends in the evening.

Because of the uncertainty of the timing of the changeover, early releases are possible but not likely for some schools and districts tomorrow. Again it would appear that students in the northern half of the county have a better chance for releases than others.

We'll most likely update early tomorrow morning before school if we get more info about the timing of the transition from rain to sleet to snow.