A significant to major winter storm is expected to affect all of Western and Central Mass beginning on Wednesday evening and continuing into the day on Thursday.
Snow is expected to overspread Western and Central Mass between about 8 pm and 10 pm Wednesday evening.
The snow is then expected to quickly become heavy to very heavy in intensity by or just after midnight. This heavy to very heavy snow is then expected to continue into the first half of Thursday morning before lightening up in intensity after about 9-10 am Thursday morning.
Snowfall rates of 2 to 3 inches per hour are expected at times between midnight Wednesday night and 9 am Thursday morning. This will make travel extremely hazardous due to the snow accumulating on roads at a rapid rate along with extremely low visibility.
The snow will gradually come to an end from west to east during Thursday afternoon.
In addition to the snow, north to northeast winds are expected to gust up to 25 to 35 mph at times during Wednesday night and Thursday leading to blowing and drifting snow.
Also, this is going to be a “cold” storm with temperatures remaining in the 20 to 25 Degree range throughout the storm. This also means that this will be a light and fluffy snow.
My latest snowfall total map for this storm can be found attached to this post. Please note that I may need to increase the snow totals even more, especially in the Springfield to Worcester corridor where over a foot of snow is very much possible.
I continue to watch this storm extremely closely and will have additional updates as needed.