Forecast For Southern Worcester County & The Connecticut River Valley (Includes Mass Pike, I-84, I-395, Route 146, I-91 & Springfield Metro): It looks like a downright miserable night thanks to rain, sleet, snow, raw and very windy conditions.
Rain mixed with sleet has been occurring all afternoon and I expect that a mix of rain and sleet will continue into this evening. As we head towards midnight, it looks likely that a change to all sleet with the sleet falling heavily at times can be expected. Sleet mixed with snow at times will then continues through the after midnight hours of tonight with the precipitation falling at a heavy intensity at times. It will be very windy throughout tonight with east winds of 20 to 35 mph with gusts to 50 mph.
Sleet mixed with snow at times looks to persist through Thursday morning before it gradually ends during Thursday afternoon. It will continue to be windy throughout the day on Thursday with northeast winds of 20 to 30 mph with gusts to 40-45 mph in the morning and north winds of 15 to 25 mph with gusts to 35 mph in the afternoon.
Snow & Sleet Amounts: My latest thinking is that snow amounts will range from less than one inch for the lower Pioneer Valley of Western Mass, including the Springfield metro to 1 to 2 inches of slushy snow and sleet for the middle and upper Pioneer Valley of Western Mass as well as for areas near and south of the Mass Pike, including I-84, I-395 and Route 146.
Forecast For Central Worcester County (Includes I-290, Route 9 & Worcester Metro): It looks like a downright miserable night thanks to rain, sleet, snow, raw and very windy conditions.
A mix of rain and sleet has been occurring all afternoon and I expect that a change to all sleet with some snow mixed in will occur during this evening. As we head towards midnight and throughout the after midnight hours, it looks like a mix of sleet and snow will occur, which likely will change to all snow at times. This snow and sleet tonight will fall at a heavy rate at times. It will be very windy throughout tonight with east winds of 20 to 35 mph with gusts to 50 mph.
Snow mixed with sleet at times likely will persist throughout Thursday morning before it gradually ends during Thursday afternoon. It will continue to be windy throughout the day on Thursday with northeast winds of 20 to 30 mph with gusts to 40-45 mph in the morning and north winds of 15 to 25 mph with gusts to 35 mph in the afternoon.
Snow & Sleet Amounts: My latest thinking is that snow and sleet amounts will range from 2 to 3 inches across areas north of the Mass Pike, including the Worcester Metro, the Route 9 corridor and I-290. Areas on the north side of Worcester and around Worcester airport could end up with 3 to 4 inches of snow and sleet.
Forecast For Northern Worcester County & The Berkshires (Includes Route 2 & The I-190 Corridor North Of Worcester): Rain and sleet is expected to change to snow with some sleet mixed in during this evening. Mostly all snow is then expected from about midnight tonight through the after midnight hours of tonight. The snow and sleet is expected to fall at a heavy intensity at times during tonight. In addition to this, it is expected to be very windy throughout tonight with east winds of 20 to 35 mph with gusts to 50 mph.
Snow mixed at times with sleet will persist throughout Thursday morning before it gradually comes to an end during Thursday afternoon. It will also continue to be windy throughout Thursday with northeast winds of 20 to 30 mph with gusts to 40-50 mph in the morning and north winds of 15 to 25 mph with gusts to 35 mph in the afternoon.
Snow & Sleet Amounts: My thinking is that snow and sleet amounts will range from about 4 to 5 inches of snow and sleet around Holden, Paxton and Rutland to 5 to 7 inches of snow and sleet for areas around Princeton and Barre to 7 to 8 inches of snow and sleet for areas near Route 2 to upwards of 8 to 10 inches of snow and sleet for areas that are north of Route 2. As for the Berkshires, it appears that snow and sleet totals will range from 3 to 6 inches across the southern Berkshires to 6 to 10 inches across the northern Berkshires.
This wet and heavy snow combined with the very windy conditions tonight and Thursday is likely to lead to downed trees and power lines leading to power outage issues.