FLORENCE — A little after 3 p.m., this village was blanketed in a bright, thick snow that clung to tree branches and windshields.
Kathy Della Penna shuffled down Chestnut Street from Cook’s Corner store with a can of tomato soup she planned to use for stuffed peppers.
“It’s really lovely,” Della Penna said as she looked down Chestnut Street. “I’m really glad it’s not changing to rain.”
National Weather Service forecasters predicted Wednesday that some areas could receive afternoon rainfall. Bill Simpson, weather service meteorologist, said just before 7 p.m. Thursday that most of the rainfall had thus far been south of the Mass Pike and east of the Quabbin Reservoir.
He said snowfall could continue accumulating in the Pioneer Valley until 9 or 10 p.m.
“It’s a gradual taper,” Simpson said. “You still might get some light flurries up through midnight.”
He said overnight lows were predicted to be in the mid-20s with Friday highs expected to be in the mid-30s, allowing snow to melt.
“That’s pretty much the normal high for the last few days of the year in December,” Simpson said.
Hampshire, Franklin and western Hampden counties were still under a winter storm warning that was set to last until 4 a.m. Friday.
“The precip slows down but the winds pick up,” Simpson said. Wind gusts in Northampton could reach 38 mph, according to weather service predictions.
The latest snowfall totals posted to the weather service website showed Northampton receiving 4 inches as of 7:30 p.m. and Huntington receiving 6 inches of snow as of 7:18 p.m.
State police reported three snow-related crashes on Interstate 91 Thursday, but none resulted in injuries, a spokesman said. In Hadley, police responded to a report of a car striking a tree on South Maple Street, but no one was injured, police said.
With temperatures a little above the freezing mark, people shoveling said the snow was on the wet and heavy side.
Outside Cook’s Corner in Florence, was shoveling snow off the sidewalk at about 2:30 p.m.
“It’s not too wet, which is good,” Aidan Putnam-Dean, 21, said as he shoveled outside Cook’s Corner in Florence. “But it’s definitely not fluffy powder.”
In Northampton, at the Papa Gino’s on King Street, 16-year-old Kyle Kapinos was on snow duty. He shoveled barehanded because he doesn’t like gloves and wore bags on his feet because he didn’t wear boots.
He had only been outside 10 or 15 minutes, he said, but the snow was coming down hard, meaning a thin layer of flakes had accumulated where he had already been.
“It’s heavy,” Kapinos said of the snow composition. “Underneath … it was wet, it was compact, and it was really hard.”
Matt Brewster, 30, was shoveling his driveway a little after 3 p.m. on Chestnut Street.
“It’s pretty heavy,” he said. “My understanding is that it’s supposed to transition to rain pretty soon. But who knows?”
Brett Constantine, a worker-owner for Pedal People, was pedaling down Main Street lugging a full load of trash.
He had a positive take on the weather.
“It changes a brown, gray day to an exciting, white, adventurous day,” he said. “I love the snow.”
Contact Jack Suntrup at jsuntrup@gazettenet.com.