Winter Storm Watch for Sunday/Monday, January 29-30

We missed out on delays this morning (except for Stamford, VT), but we are very intrigued about the new developments for our late weekend storm. This afternoon (Friday) NWS Albany caught us off slightly off guard and threw out a Winter Storm Watch for Sunday into Monday.

The Watch duration is 6 AM Sunday to late morning Monday. The reason for the Watch is an increase in anticipated precipitation totals for the Berkshires. With 0.5" or more of liquid expected and a 10:1 liquid-to-snow ratio, NWS Albany decided to post the Watch.

The Watch can go one of two ways. We could get an upgrade to a Winter Storm Warning, which means 6+ inches for the region. We could also transition to a Winter Weather Advisory, which means snow totals below the 6" threshold. 

NWS Boston

Higher elevations towns will get higher snow totals with this event because there will be too much air in the valleys for it to really pile up. But eventually the cold air will seep into the valley and allow those lower elevation towns to get at least 2-4 inches. A big uncertainty is how early the transition from rain to snow will occur in the valleys.

As always the timing is crucial. With the end of the storm expected to be around 10 AM Monday, the timing is good but not ideal. If the storm ends earlier than expected--which is often the case--then school children will get delays but not full snow days.

Given the information we have right now, we have a feeling that the Winter Storm Watch is only going to become a Winter Weather Advisory tomorrow except for high elevation towns on the east side of the County. This does not mean that we won't get snow days on Monday. Some schools will. But the majority of us will see delays.

At least that's what we're saying right now.

Just a heads up to the faithful GSD readers that the Staff will be at one of our winter agricultural conferences in Boston this weekend. We will still be monitoring the weather (duh), but we probably won't be able to put up a new post at this site until Sunday morning. 

If any big changes occur tomorrow, we'll throw a quick update on the socials--Facebook (@GreylockSnowDay) and Instagram (@greylock_snow_day).