Record Cold Tonight; Snow Showers For Monday

To those of you who have had up to here with the cold: relief is in sight. Tomorrow will still be cold--highs in the teens in the afternoon--but there will be no wind, and the work week begins with temps in the 30s. And to end the week we'll be in the mid-40s. The cold snap will be over.

Today, though, will be miserable. It's -3 at the GSD Home Office, and we do not expect to see much northern movement of the mercury. Also, the wind continues to be gusty, bringing wind chill values close to -30 degrees. If you go outside, make sure you cover your skin. Tonight the wind will die down and, with no cloud cover, there will be what is called radiational cooling. Temps will get to -13 to -16 in the Berkshires tonight. Great googly moogly, that's cold.

We do have snow in the forecast. A weak system will move across our area during the day Monday. We could see a dusting up to an inch, but there's not too much to worry about there. After school activities should not be affected.

The weather forecast for later in the week is less certain. Again, it's the battle of the models. The North American gives us a chance of light snow overnight on Wednesday while the Euro keeps us high and dry and warmer. Let's just say right now that there is a chance for unsettled weather, with rain likely at some point, between the early hours of Thursday and Saturday evening.

Freeze Days and Delays

This morning the snow has stopped, the wind is howling, and the temperature sits at a chilly 5 degrees. Wind chill values are approaching -20 degrees. Most schools have called in their verdict for today,  Here's our current list, and we'll be updating it for the next hour or so. It's the inverse of yesterday's list--South County schools are going with the delays, while everyone north of Great Barrington is off (of those districts that have made their decision)

FREEZE DAY

Berkshire Country Day
Southern Berkshire
Berkshire Community College
Lee
Lenox
Pittsfield
Pine Cobble
Emma Miller
Southwest Vermont SU
Southern Vermont College
Stamford VT
Central Berkshire
BArT
Farmington River
Emma Miller
Gabriel Abbott
McCann
Clarksburg
Adams/Cheshire
North Adams
Mount Greylock
Williamstown
Lanesborough
Hancock
Williams College (administrative offices and day school)
Mohawk Trail

2-HOUR DELAY

Berkshire Hills
Richmond

As we go through the morning, here are some fun maps to look at. These were produced yesterday afternoon or night:

Recorded snowfall for Thursday's storm. Generally speaking, this storm overperformed.

No snow totals will break any records, but the cold on the backside of the storm might.

Please stay inside if you can over the next few days. We'll have a big warmup on Monday and Tuesday, with temps in the low 30s. Break out the shorts!

Wind Chill Warning & Winter Weather Advisory

Currently, we are under two different alerts for Berkshire County. One is a Winter Weather Advisory, which is slated to last through Sunday morning. This Advisory is due to the dangerously low temperatures as well as the blowing and drifting of the close to 8 inches that fell in most of Berkshire County.

The other is a Wind Chill Advisory that will then turn over to the more severe Wind Chill Warning. The Warning will kick in at 1 AM tonight and last through Saturday evening. The Warning calls for dangerously low Wind Chills, perhaps getting to as low as -35. The NWS is quick to tell us that frostbite can kick in in these unusually cold temperatures in 10 minutes.

Because of the dangerously cold conditions tomorrow morning, the GSD Staff thinks that several schools will do what they can to prevent students from having to wait at bus stops. These preventative measures could come in the form of delays and/or full snow days. While it won't be quite as cold as it was Tuesday (when we did get freeze delays), the wind chill will make it feel much colder. Plus, there will be snow blowing sideways, and that's always fun.

The GSD Staffers are a bunch of hearty New Englanders, and as much as we advocate for snow days, we also find it it admirable to tough out the harsh weather. But we draw the line at the ultra cold. Snow in and of itself is not dangerous; temps in the -20s are neither fun nor safe.

And on that cheery note, we do have a few delays and closures to report for tomorrow. We'll start the running list here:

FREEZE DAY

Central Berkshire
BArT
Farmington River
Emma Miller
Gabriel Abbott
McCann
Clarksburg
Adams/Cheshire
North Adams
Mount Greylock
Williamstown
Lanesborough
Hancock
Williams College (administrative offices and day school)
Mohawk Trail

2-HOUR DELAY

Southern Berkshire
Berkshire Hills
Richmond
Southwest Vermont SU
Stamford VT
Berkshire Country Day