Heavy Snow — Southern Worcester, Massachusetts

2020-12-16 to 2020-12-17 · Southern Worcester, Massachusetts

Event narrative

Heavy snow in southern Worcester County generally ranged from 10 to 16 inches. Some specific amounts included 16.1 inches in Grafton (trained spotter), 13.3 inches in Milford (trained spotter), 12.5 inches in Westborough (NWS employee), 12.1 inches at the Worcester Airport, 11.7 inches in Northborough (CoCoRaHS), 11.6 inches in Southbridge (CoOp observer), and 10.0 inches in Shrewsbury (public). Winds generally were gusting to 25 to 35 mph. At 154 PM EST on the 17th, the ASOS at the Worcester Airport (KORH) recorded a gust to 36 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 928456. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.