A widespread 3-6 inches of snow fell across southern and central New England Saturday morning with a band of 6-10 inches in central Massachusetts. In the 24 hours leading up to this system, trends were pointing toward increasing snow totals. This was due to the strengthening of the storm and evaporational cooling as the storm arrived. In our forecast yesterday morning, we wrote:
“There have been some rather distinct trends within guidance over the last 24 hours or so involving dry air and the potential for a strengthening storm system, both of which lends itself to entertaining the idea of a bit more snowfall…Diving into the reasons behind this potential bump in precipitation, the system will be entering a dry air mass with high pressure just north of New England. This lends itself to the potential for evaporational cooling. Evaporational cooling is the process of an air mass cooling as water evaporates within it (as water changes from a liquid to a vapor, it absorbs heat).
Another potential factor working for the system will be the possible strengthening of the storm as it moves closer to New England. This could lead to a band of heavier precipitation rates forming across southern and central New England as frontogenesis forms, which is basically the formation and strengthening of a frontal boundary.”
These factors were able to come together to produce a band of 1-3 inch an hour snowfall rates across the Worcester Hills, allowing this storm to overachieve by a good amount in the area. With all of that out of the way, here are the totals:
North Granby 1.8 inches Staffordville 1.6 inches