Snowcast for the Week of November 27

We trust everyone had a joyous Thanksgiving weekend and are ready for a very busy four weeks--yes, only four weeks!--until our next vacation.

The big question on everyone's mind is: Will we get a snow day between now the start of the December holiday break?

As of today, the GSD staff is leaning toward "no," but that's only because we have forecast info for the first half of the month. But the next two weeks are not looking snowy.

Model-predicted snow totals for the next 10 days (European). Still waiting for a substantial storm.

For this week, it's a little this and that with emphasis on "little." We will have some rain Sunday night into Monday morning, then a cold few days (10 degrees below normal), then a warm-up toward the weekend with more showers on Friday. Once the rain clears out on Monday, temps will drop into the lower 20s by midnight and we do not expect to get much above 30 on Tuesday. Gradually, things will warm back up toward 40 by the end of the week.

The only real chance for snow is Sunday night into Monday with wet snow at the highest elevations in the Berkshires. So this week looks like a five full days of school.

We'll let you know if we hear otherwise!

Snow Possible Tuesday Night (Nov. 21)

Happy Thanksgiving Week, faithful flake followers!

We are happy to report the chance of snow Tuesday night into Wednesday. It likely will not be enough to affect the school day on Wednesday, but the days are getting colder and shorter and it's about time to see some white stuff on the ground.

A highly optimistic Euro forecast for Tuesday night into Wednesday.

Snow will fall in the Berkshires Tuesday night. Folks to our north (VT and NY) have Winter Weather Advisories in place. There's a chance those advisories could get extended to Northern Berkshire during the day tomorrow. At most we'll see 2-3 inches of wet snow in higher elevation locations Tuesday night. Unfortunately, snow should change over to rain by the morning commute, so those unlucky students who have school on Wednesday will likely have to attend.

We're still awaiting a bigger storm in the long range forecast. Early December is our best guess, but this strong El Nino pattern could keep us dry throughout the month of December. Sorry skiers, but we won't be at all surprised if this winter starts very slowly in terms of snow totals.

Winter Weather Advisory for Thursday, Nov. 9

Our first winter weather alert of the season! Early today (Wednesday) the National Weather Service in Albany announced a Winter Weather Advisory for northern and southern Berkshire County. The duration is from 9 PM tonight to 10 AM (south), and 9 PM to 1 PM (north).

Expect three types of frozen precipitation--snow, sleet, and freezing rain--at some point this evening. We won't see much snow accumulation (less than an inch), but icing for the morning commute is the main reason for the advisory. The set up is cold air at the surface and warmer air with precipitation above. The precipitation will fall through the cold air, and if the surface can stay at 32 degrees or below, we'll get icy roads.

So, is there a chance for a delay? Absolutely! If you live in the hill towns, you have a much better chance than those who live in lower elevation towns.

NWS Albany

We'll give students who live above I-90 a 30% chance, and those below the highway will have about a 10% chance (sorry). Also, schools on the east side will fare better than those on the New York border. We think at least a few schools will get a delay, but we doubt we'll see any kind of clean sweep.

If there is freezing rain, you'll need extra time to scrape off the ol' windshield tomorrow. So build that into your commute time.