May-be Snow This Weekend

Like everything else these days, May snowstorms are polarizing.

A good number of people around these parts are against May snowstorms. For them, it's spring so it's time to move on. Typically, these folks are the type that would love a two-foot snowstorm in March, but then once they turn the calendar to April, they don't want the temperature to drop below 70 until October.

Then there are those for whom any snow is good snow. Especially an unusual snow fall, like a May storm. They crave weather oddities and records broken, regardless of the harm done to daffodils and forsythia. Typically, these people love to talk about weather any old time of year, and this May storm is a nice opportunity to talk about something other than the C-word.

The official GSD position on these two camps is don't be a snow hypocrite. If you get all fired up for an October storm, then you should offer up that same energy for April and May storms. Your appreciation of snow should be calendarially symmetrical.

So...what's coming this weekend? Ultimately, probably not that much. Precipitation will roll in Friday afternoon and evening and get very interesting after midnight as a coastal storm potentially "bombs" out. Two things will occur. The precipitation will increase significantly and unseasonably cold air will get sucked down from the north and overspread New England. The rain will then turn to wet snow.

Elevation will play a critical role with this storm (as is the case for late winter and spring storms). Higher terrains could see 3-4 inches of very wet snow. Valley locations will likely see 1-2 inches of snow that mostly just covers the grass. Snow should stop falling by midday on Saturday.

Our suggestion is that you keep the shovel handy just in case this storm packs a little more punch than will be advertised the next few days. While this storm will probably end up being more of a nuisance snow than a major event, there is definitely the possibility for damage to yard plants and trees.

We hesitate to do this, but we're going to show you the Euro model for this storm. Don't start spreading this image all over the internet as it's a VERY aggressive forecast at the moment and most meteorologists thinks it's running a little hot. We probably won't get 5" for most of Berkshire County.

Euro model for Saturday, May 9.

We'll update tomorrow and/or Friday if we see any big changes to total snow forecasts.