The spring equinox was celebrated at the UMass Amherst Sunwheel at sunrise and sunset Tuesday as another nor’easter approached the region, promising snow.
“It’s still winter. I don’t care if the calendar says it’s the first day of spring,” meteorologist Alan Dunham said.
The storm, the fourth one in three weeks, could bring 2 to 6 inches of snow to western Massachusetts. The bulk of the snow and sleet was expected to wallop New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and parts of eastern Pennsylvania Wednesday before heading toward Cape Cod early Thursday.
“The National Weather Service is increasingly confident that the commonwealth will be impacted by a nor’easter beginning Wednesday morning through Thursday morning,” the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency said in a statement Tuesday morning.
Hampshire County is under a winter storm watch for that period, meaning there is potential for significant snow, sleet or ice accumulations that could affect travel.
Light snow is forecast to hit early to mid-morning but isn’t expected to affect the morning commute, according to Dunham. Heavier, steadier snow is forecast to arrive Wednesday afternoon.
Cancellations mounted at airports from Washington to Boston — more than 500 Tuesday and more than 1,600 Wednesday. On the ground, Amtrak said it would scale back service on the Northeast corridor and Pennsylvania banned certain types of trucks from major highways starting Tuesday night.
The jet stream, the upper level river of air that guides weather, is stuck in a plunging pattern that brings plenty of moisture from the south up the East Coast, said Brian Hurley, of the National Weather Service.
Four nor’easters in three weeks is highly unusual, but it happens when a pattern locks in. And that’s happened, Hurley said.