Heavy Snow — Western Hampshire, Massachusetts

2020-12-16 to 2020-12-17 · Western Hampshire, Massachusetts

Event narrative

Heavy snow ranged from 9 to 20.5 inches across western Hampshire County, with the highest amounts in the immediate east slopes of the Berkshires. Some specific totals included 20.5 inches in Westhampton (CoCoRaHS), 20.0 inches on the west side of Plainfield (CoCoRaHS), 17.0 inches in Goshen (broadcast media), 12.0 inches in Huntington (trained spotter), 12.0 inches on the east side of Plainfield (CoCoRaHS), and 9.0 inches in Williamsburg (CoCoRaHS). Winds generally were gusting to 20 to 30 mph.

Wider weather episode

A storm system produced heavy snow, strong to damaging winds, and minor coastal flooding in southern New England. This was a tough storm to forecast. Although it was not deep low pressure and although it passed just south of the 40N/70W benchmark, its precipitation shield was expansive because of a broad 700 mb low over southeast New England, abundant moisture, and a very cold air mass in place. By far, the heaviest snow fell to the north (Laconia, NH) and west (Binghamton, NY), where more than 3 feet fell. But amounts ranged from 10 to 20 inches across much of southern New England. There was some minor coastal flooding at the time of high tide and also a flash freeze in eastern Massachusetts as the storm pulled away to the northeast.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 928436. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.