11:00 AM - Though flakes continue to fall across most locations, the axis of the storm is passing through the region. When the Clipper system passes by, the winds shift from out of the South, to out of the West...this will change the dynamic of where our snowfall accumulation would come from. We would then have to rely on moisture flowing in from NY and PA rather than ocean-based sources. This would greatly stunt future accumulations that would be seen in the valley. So...the storm is winding down.

The 'Current Pressure' map shows the trough currently overhead, and passing to the east. It won't be long before '3 Hour Pressure Change' trends show a rising here locally. The highway crews now have a leg up on the roadways, owing to the lighter snowfall and the higher temperatures allowing more salt and sand to do it's thing. Check out the current image of downtown Northampton, and roadways in Sunderland. In fact, in Albany, skies are clearing...so it won't be long until the same thing is seen here, despite any little extra the mountains may receive in snowfall for the next few hours or so. As the Sun comes out...the snow will immediately compress a bit, as the "light and fluffy" meets that incoming solar radiation. If you wait to measure the snow until early this afternoon, you may not be impressed with the results. But, recalling earlier in the storm the fluffy snow you could just brush off the car with your gloves, you can now enjoy the perfect consistency of thicker, moister snow...perfect for snowballs and snowmen.

Some of those higher end Berkshire Mountain totals coming in are as follows:

Bromley Village, VT ... 12.0"
Savoy ... 11.3"
Landgrove, VT ... 11.0"
Woodford, VT ... 10.0"

We're always looking for more weather reports from your area! Let us know how much you got! Send in anything you have to report through email here. Also...any weather pictures? We like them too...Send them here. As always, anytime you're interested you can hook up to our 24/7 online Weatherstream "WeatherNow". It is now also available on Comcast Digital Cable...channel 293.

10:00 AM - The snowflakes are holding their own in the Worcester Hills and the Berkshires, though breaking up a little bit in the Valley. Nevertheless, a good coating of snowfall for the region. New accumulation totals:

Burlington, CT ... 6.2"
Shelburne ... 5.5"
Goshen ... 5.5"
West Hartford, CT ... 5.0"
Southwick ... 4.9"
Longmeadow ... 4.8"
Monson ... 4.5"

It appears snowfall accumulations are falling in line with forecasted values south of the Mass Pike, but look a little low for the mountains. However, extra lift due to the mountains should help squeeze out perhaps a couple inches more up there.

9:00 AM - Snow is a bit lighter across parts of Western Massachusetts, as a lot of the heavier moisture is to the east. Each of the flakes that do fall however, are still sticking. No doubt it's a silly ride on some of those mountain traversinng routes...for example from Worthington to Hinsdale, or Greenfield to North Adams.

The current 'Hourly Roundup' still shows a full suite of snow / light snow reports, with rain along the southeast coast, and rain south of Hartford. 'Current Temperatures', having risen overnight, are now in the mid-20s, and should stay below freezing through the duration of the storm. 'Current Wet-Bulb Temperatures' also indicate, given a saturated atmosphere, the rain-snow line creeping up into central Connecticut. It is not expected that this makes much of an inroad further north. The latest '3 hour Pressure Falls' indicate the best dynamics are refocusing on the eastern part of the state, now also the region of greatest 'Vertical Velocity' (upward air motion that encourages precipitation). With all this, it should be noted that the storm is 'not over' for Western Mass just yet...but it is expected that the snow will become a bit more sporadic and patchy before tapering off later on.

If you have Comcast Cable, you can tune into our newly-launched 24-hour Weather Channel "Weather Now"...Here you can see continuously updated material and forecasts to suit you. You can hook into the same feed online...by clicking the above link.

8:00 AM - Snow is still being reported across all sites at this hour, though that may not be the case for the next. We have some more snowfall measurements to throw out at you, as they have been coming into us...

Landgrove, VT ... 11.0"
Woodford, VT ... 10.0"
Litchfield, CT ... 6.0"
Lanesborough ... 6.0"
Ashfield ... 5.8"
Burlington, CT ... 5.0"
Longmeadow ... 3.8"

Keep in mind that you too can send in a snowfall measurement! Just stick a ruler in the ground, and write it down. Also, if you take any quick weather pictures, even with your cell phone...you can email them right in.

6:00 AM - Many of the secondary roads are snow covered, as it appears the road crews have been focusing their attention on the primary roads. As daylight arrives, you can 'survey the scene' from your own home by looking at the various Weather WebCams we have, located in our Current Conditions page. Also, some recent snowfall total reports are in...

Searsburg, VT ... 12.0"
Westhampton ... 5.5"
Winsted, CT ... 5.0"
Farmington, CT ... 3.5"

It appears now on the 'Regional Radar' map, that there is a lot of reflectivity passing by us to our south, indicating where the bulk of the moisture is now heading. Nevertheless, falling snow (especially the drier and fluffier it is), doesn't show up well on radar...but it still could mean things could begin winding down as we move through to the morning hours.


4:00 AM - The snow has been falling steadily through the night...and more snowfall reports have been reported recently...mainly toward the Berkshires and Northern Connecticut. I'm sure more will be available once the morning arrives.

North Canaan, CT ... 5.0"
Bennington, VT ... 5.0"
Winchester, CT ... 4.5"
Litchfield, CT ... 3.5"
Albany, NY ... 1.9"

2:00 AM - We're now starting to enter a region of greater dynamics with this storm, with virtually all indicies pointing toward steady to heavy snow region-wide. Start to look for accumulation rates approaching and exceeding an inch per hour across a large part of the area. The current 'Vertical Velocity' picture shows we are now entering a solid section of decent ascent...allowing for more snow growth to precipitate. The 'Surface Pressure' map shows the axis of the system (marked by the region of lowest pressure) is still well off to our west, and not too strong relative to normal east-coast snow-makers. On the latest '3 Hour Pressure Change' map...It should be noted that Western Mass is being approached by a region of greatest downward pressure change, which always serves to give a little extra kick. If the temperatures were warmer...of if there were actually an appreciable amount of moisture involved with this system, we perhaps could have had a lot more of a mess on our hands.

Midnight (3/1) - The snow continues at it's steady pace across the area...and some early reports are coming into the station. It should be noted the fluffy nature of the snow...You could probably sneeze it off your windshield, yet it does mount up quickly...

New Canaan, CT ... 3.0"
Pittsfield ... 3.0"
Alford ... 2.5"
Great Barrington ... 2.5"
Westhampton ... 2.0"

With the 'Current Temperature' map still showing upper teens to low 20s, conditions still look ripe for a steadily accumulating swath of fluffy snow. And, judging from the 'Regional Radar', we'll be at it all night.

10:30 PM - The snowfall has progressed through virtually all of Western Massachusetts, and is now oozing it's way into the I-495 corridor toward eastern Massachusetts. The flakes are quite dry and fluffy, and this is expected to persist into the night. At times, this should get on the heavy side, causing visibility problems, but it may be noted that this snow will be slightly easier to plow and remove because of it's delicate consistency. You can monitor the reports of weather conditions from around the state in our 'Current Hourly Roundup' page. From the convenience of your house, you can monitor the road conditions of other parts of the area by checking out our 'Weather WebCams', for example, a look at downtown Northampton.

If you want access to updated weather information on a continual basis, you could also check out our 24/7 online webStream "Weather Now" (can work even on some cell phones)...with all you need to now about the upcoming weather...NOW ON CABLE! If you're a Comcast Cable subscriber, head to channel 293 to see this digital 24/7 weather feed.

Wake up tomorrow morning, and get curious how much snow you have..? Let us know too! We love to see the various reports we get in from the community during a snowstorm...and it's VERY helpful too. So stick a ruler down and email in your report! Also...feel free to send in your weather scenery pictures. We always like to look at these too...and who knows...you may see your pictures on air at the 6pm or 11pm news!

9:30 PM - Snow has been spreading west to east lately, and has now jumped over the Berkshires and started filling the valley. The 'Current Radar' is bearing this out. Checking current 'Vertical Velocities', we're still nowhere near the region of best ascent, and thus shouldn't expect good snowfall for a little bit. But, it is coming. The 'Current Snowfall Forecast' model map, available on our 'Forecast Center' page (with many other continually updating maps and products) is projecting upwards of a foot of snow for the Berkshire mountains, all from around an inch of total moisture (it's that 'dry snow' concept again).

One element that normally makes it difficult to get good snowfall amounts from storms like this, is the steady fetch of southeast winds. When we talk about winds, and wind directions, we mean to indicate the direction FROM WHICH the wind is blowing, with the idea that the properties of the air in that direction (temperature and moisture) would be headed our way. The 'Current Streamlines' map goes a good way to show how wind is flowing in the atmosphere. This Southeast breeze normally over-warms the region, causing a changeover to rain...but this time around, because the air starts off so dry and cold...that it will instead 'thread the needle' and effectively walk the tightrope of giving us more Altantic moisture while inching those temperatures upward, yet keeping us below freezing. The Atlantic Ocean this time of year is climatalogically at it's coldest temperature of the year locally...so, had this been a November storm, we would be most certainly talking about a change-over to rain settling in.

9:00 PM - Things are starting slowly around here...as we've been waiting for a dry layer of air overhead to saturate. This storm system has been moving pretty fluidly across the country, but locally, there hasn't been much moisture in the sky. The 'Current Dewpoint' map is a good indicator of this. The "Dewpoint" is a measure of moisture in the air, indicating the temperature air would have to be at to become completely saturated with water. Since warmer air requires more total water for saturation, it can often feel very 'sticky' on sunny Summer afternoons. Conversely, it doesn't take much water at all to saturate a cold airmass, and permit snowfall. If the air is too dry, falling snowflakes will often evaporate into the air, boosting it's moisture content but not actually reach the ground. To watch this progress toward saturation, it's helpful to look at the 'Current Temperature' map, and compare it with the dewpoints. There's two ways to achieve saturation when looking at a comparison like this: 1. Cool the temperature, 2. Increase the moisture. As of now, dewpoints are still in the single digits (indicating air temperatures would need to be in the single digits themselves in order for the air to saturate, and permit decent snowfall. However, off to our west, temperatures are dropping into the teens, and dewpoints are rising (reflecting the influx of more moisture). In a situation like this...once saturation occurs, the skies can go from seemingly docile, to full of flakes-- as they no longer evaporate or sublimate en masse before reaching the ground.

FIRST WORD - This storm system is what forecasters commonly refer to as an "Alberta Clipper". The first part of that term refers to the Canadian Province from which the beginnings of the system first enters the United States. The "Clipper" part of this nick-name is the most important, because it implies a fast-moving, relatively non-powerful entity. Often these storms are carried by some pretty swift steering currents in the upper atmosphere, and they can traverse a large section of the country in just 24-hours. As a result, moisture does not have a long time to fall over a single area (holding down snow totals). It also does not have much time to sufficiently develop a moisture-rich inflow off the Ocean like a 'Noreaster would. "Alberta Clippers" are more known for a few inches of snow, but gusty winds...but this time around, Heavy Snow Warnings are posted. This is due to the air temperatures. We set a record low temperature of 3-degrees this morning. With colder air, it takes less total moisture to fluff up snowflakes, and thus a system that may normally drop 4" of snow, could instead drop 8". At this point, some locations can get even more than that.