Storm System Could Bring Region's First Nor'easter of Season04:30PM / Thursday, December 03, 2020 | |
The dusting of snow the Berkshires got on Wednesday — after enjoying temperatures in the high 50s the days before —may have been a warning of things to come.
The National Weather Service in Albany, N.Y., has posted a winter storm watch for the Berkshires this weekend and some forecasters say this could be the first Nor'easter of the season.
NWS is warning of heavy snow and accumulations of 6 inches or more in the Berkshires and Southern Vermont. The storm is expected to hit Saturday morning and run through Sunday morning. Travel could be difficult because of covered roadways and low visibility.
The storm will organize Friday as a system that brought snow to the Midwest earlier this week pushes warmer air toward the coast as it moves south and the jet stream dips below the Great Lakes, adding more fuel. Rain and thunderstorms will cover most of the coast and as far west as Nashville and Cincinnati. The precipitation will turn to snow as the storm system moves northeast on Friday night.
Accuweather reports that "forecasters will also be monitoring for the potential for this storm to go through the process of bombogenesis, or a rapid strengthening that occurs when the central barometric pressure of a storm plummets by 0.71 of an inch of mercury (24 millibars) within 24 hours. When a storm undergoes this level of intensification, it is referred to as a bomb cyclone."
If the storm intensifies, it could drop up to a foot of snow across Northern Berkshire and Southern Vermont and be accompanied by high winds that could cause power outages across the region.
|