Valley residents were gearing up over the weekend for the season’s first significant snowstorm, which was forecasted to sweep the region Sunday evening and cause headaches for the morning commute.
As of 4 p.m. Sunday, the National Weather Service forecasted between 4 and 6 inches of snowfall in the eastern parts of Hampshire and Franklin counties, and 6 to 8 inches of snow in the western parts. The precipitation was set to start Sunday evening and last until late Monday morning, said meteorologist Glenn Field of the National Weather Service.
He added that the weather service put the western portion of the two counties under a “winter storm warning” Sunday afternoon. That’s an upgrade from a “winter weather advisory,” which the eastern part of the two counties is under.
Around daybreak Monday, Field said, residents can expect either rain or freezing rain, depending on the temperature locally. He said temperatures are expected to be between 30 and 35 degrees throughout the region Monday morning.
“Right around daybreak or a little after, there could actually be a little bit of rain just to add to the misery,” Field said. “It’s not very much, but even a hundredth of an inch of freezing rain could make it very icy.”
The National Weather Service warned that the storm will have a significant impact on Monday morning’s rush hour.
There will also be a parking ban in effect in Northampton from midnight until 6 a.m. Monday, according to a news release. On Main Street, there will be no parking from 2 a.m. to 7 a.m.
The Armory Street lot will be open overnight, according to the release, but cars will have to be moved for plowing between 8 and 10 a.m. Monday and again from 6 to 10 p.m. The John E. Gare garage will be open all day, according to the release.
Field said the weather service predicts a strong Arctic cold front that could bring “dangerously cold wind chills” later in the week, with one wave moving through Thursday and another Friday.
Temperatures in the Valley will be frigid, Field said, ranging at the low end from 0 to 5 degrees below zero. A wind chill index between 15 and 25 degrees below zero could make outside feel even more biting, he said.
He said area residents can also expect 30 mph ind gusts.
“That’s going to be brutally cold,” Field said.
With the season’s first significant snowstorm in sight, Valley residents were gearing up Saturday with activities from prepping their snowmobiles to hanging Christmas lights.
Though traffic troubles could be on the horizon, Florence resident John Chereski, 66, said that he does not mind. In fact, he is looking forward to some snow.
Chereski stood outside his North Main Street home Saturday morning, revving up a couple of Ski-Doo snowmobiles with his son Mark, who lives in Goshen.
“They’re brand new this year,” Chereski said. “We’ve been riding since ’73.”
Chereski said he likes to take his snowmobile up to Van Buren, Maine. But when there’s enough snow, he rides it around Florence, too.
Snowmobiling is a three-generation affair for the Chereski family. Mark’s 6-year-old daughter Danica has her own, tinier snowmobile.
“She rides with us,” John Chereski said.
Marianna Frantz, 70, is a self-described “snow person.” She moved to Haydenville in 2003, partly to be in an area that gets a lot of snow.
“We haven’t had a big enough snow for me yet,” Frantz said as she sat in the Florence Pie Bar on Saturday afternoon. “The snow is beautiful, it freshens things up.”
Frantz said it is time to “put away the fans and get out the heaters.” She is looking forward to snowshoeing and hiking, she added.
Meanwhile, Paul Rilla strung Christmas lights at his home in Amherst on Saturday afternoon.
He wasn’t planning to decorate with lights this year, but he decided to embrace the holiday season because his daughter Kate Rilla, 31, is visiting from Long Beach, California until Friday.
As Paul and Kate strung the lights, Kate’s 10-month-old daughter Madeline slept in a car in the driveway while her grandmother, Suzanne Rilla, kept watch.
The storm Sunday night will mark Madeline’s first glimpse of snow before she heads back to California. The chubby-cheeked little girl has seen flurries before, her mother said, but nothing significant.
Though Rilla is looking forward to his granddaughter’s first snow, he hopes the winter will not bring too much of the white stuff, he said. But just in case, he tuned up his snow blower last month.
Rilla, who has lived in Amherst for 35 years, looked back on a 2011 ice storm that knocked out power for many Massachusetts residents on Halloween that year.
“We didn’t have power for six days,” Rilla said.
But according to Kate, Rilla’s wife Suzanne says those days were some of her favorite.
The Hampshire Athletic Club, then called Hampshire Fitness, had power. The couple would head over to exercise and shower, and then return to their home to grill food outside.
“We’d crawl into bed with our laptop with a DVD … and snuggle in,” Paul Rilla said.
The Rillas’ dog, Trudy, was outside as the family strung lights on the house. She may be 11 years old, but she “is like a puppy in the snow,” Rilla said.