Heavy Snow — Eastern Hampshire, Massachusetts

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

Event narrative

Heavy snow ranged from 7.5 to 12.7 inches across eastern Hampshire County. Some specific totals included 12.7 inches in Amherst (Co-Op observer), 10.0 inches in Northampton (trained spotter), 10.0 inches in Easthampton (amateur radio), 8.0 inches in Hadley (amateur radio), and 7.5 inches in Belchertown (amateur radio). Winds generally were gusting to 25-35 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 928437. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.