Four Chances for Snow

We have an active weather week ahead but no big storms. We are, however, eyeing a bigger storm for Valentine's Day. It's much too far away to get excited about it, but it's worth at least a mention.

We should see some snow Monday night into Tuesday. A coastal storm will creep up toward us but ultimately go out to sea. Still, its precipitation shield should extend into Western Mass. We could see a delay or two on Tuesday if the timing is just right because there's not much liquid precipitation associated with this system.

Some shameless wishful thinking on our part: this map shows how much snow we could get if the Monday night storm over-performs. The down-the-middle map shows an inch or less for Berkshire County.

We also could see two Alberta clippers bring us more light snow later in the week. The first one is supposed to enter our region Wednesday night, and the second one will come in Friday night. The first one will likely stay too far to our north to bring us snow, but the second one seems more potent and could bring a few inches of the white stuff in time for Saturday morning.

The big change you will notice this week will be the temperature. We should get all the way to the upper 30s each day (Monday through Friday). Our measly snow pack is going to take a significant hit.

Hopefully, we'll get it all back and then some on Valentine's Day. The models are showing another big storm for that 13th/14th. We'll monitor it and get back to you if we start to see any favorable signs.

Snow/Ice Days for Friday, February 4

Almost all school districts in Berkshire County have the day off. Sustained icing expected for much of the morning. Here's the running list of cancellations (last update: Friday 6:05 AM):

SNOW DAY:

BART

Berkshire Community College

Berkshire Hills

Central Berkshire

Clarksburg

Emma Miller

Emma Willard (NY)

Farmington River

Florida

Gabriel Abbott

Hoosac Valley

Hoosic Falls (NY) 

Lee

Lenox

MCLA

Mount Greylock

North Adams

Pine Cobble

Pittsfield

Richmond Consolidated

Southern Berkshire

Southwest Vermont SU

DELAY

Williams College (Administration Offices at 10; Children's Center at 9:30)

Friday Storm--Thursday Midday Update

This storm is, simply put, being a pain in the backside. Perhaps it's the instant gratification world we live--we want a snow day and we want it now!--but would it really be that hard for Old Man Winter to give us a slam dunk, no bones about it, guaranteed snow day?

While we still think many schools will be called off tomorrow, we can not say with certainty that all students will have the day off, especially if you live in South County. We were much more confident about the chances for a clean sweep for snow days for all schools as of yesterday, but we're definitely hesitant to make that call today.

The reason for our waffling is the on-going issue with the frontal boundary. We're seeing too many varying reports about when the temperature will drop below freezing in Berkshire County. The models are showing rain, sleet, or snow at 6 AM tomorrow. They are still all over the place.

There are, however, two pieces of good news: 

1) NWS Albany has upgraded Northern Berkshire County to a Winter Storm Warning. This means meteorologists are confident that Pittsfield and towns north will get 3+ inches of snow plus an extended period of sleet and/or freezing rain.

2) If it's not already snowing by then, sleet and freezing rain are expected in the middle of the day. Some parts of the Berkshires will see over a quarter inch of sleet and ice, which is significant. Travel will be discouraged. It will not make sense for districts to have early releases as the release could be right in the middle of the sleet part of the storm.

A reminder that orange is freezing rain and purple is sleet. This map is for noon on Friday.

We'll update again tonight, but we're still holding the Confidence Meter at 75% for North County and are dropping it to 60% in South County due to the warm air holding on longer than we would like. 

If you have a favorite snow sweater, dance or ritual, tonight will be a good night to break it out.