The snow Sunday night may have caused some inconvenience, but it also provided much-needed precipitation.
Most of western Massachusetts saw four to six inches of snow, with slightly higher totals in the Berkshires. With the Pioneer Valley still experiencing moderate-to-severe drought conditions, the precipitation could end up helping that situation.
"Hopefully we can get some warmer weather, some rain to...liquidate that snow as opposed to having it evaporate," said Rob Megnia with the National Weather Service. "It would be good for the soils and the streams and the groundwater as well,".
That warm weather won't be coming over the next few days, however. Bitter cold with wind chills possibly below zero are expected, at least through Wednesday, before a return to more normal temperatures.
"We could have some temperatures as low as -5 degrees for interior northwestern Mass., then you add in the wind chill factor and we could be looking at some wind chill temperatures as low as -10, maybe even -15 in some of the extreme western parts of Massachusetts and the Berkshires," Megnia said.
In response, some communities, including Amherst and Northampton, are opening warming facilities for those who need a place to go. And last week, Springfield announced it would open an emergency shelter during extremely cold weather events. Shortly after Holyoke announced they would open a shelter that will remain open through Thursday night.
Megnia said a warm up is expected towards the end of this week.
