By Owen Boss
Staff Writer
NORTHAMPTON — From her office window, Anne Nelson has seen more than her fair share of snowfall over the last two weeks, but she was eager for more as a system pummeled her city with another foot Wednesday.
As the snow continued to pile up outside her office, Nelson, 25, formerly of Northampton, fielded phone calls from relatives back home who had recently ducked the two major storm systems that dumped more than 2 feet of snow where she lives in Washington, D.C.
“It is a winter wonderland down here,” Nelson said from her office southeast of Capitol Hill Wednesday, adding that after the storms, she has seen people sledding and snowboarding down the steps of Capitol Hill and others snowshoeing around her neighborhood with their dogs.
“We’ve gotten so much of it that it has made people here come together,” Nelson said. “There is this great sense of camaraderie.”
Meanwhile, up north, Wednesday’s snowstorm, which spurred snow days for the majority of local school systems and the rescheduling of many high school and college sporting events, came and went with no more than a light afternoon dusting and 1 to 2 inches overnight, despite predictions from local weather experts of between 5 and 8 inches.
News 22 meteorologist Brian Lapis said Tuesday night’s prediction for at least 5 inches of snow across the Amherst and Northampton area ended up being a “busted forecast.”
Late Tuesday night Lapis said his equipment began showing signs that the storm would shift farther south than initially predicted, but still anticipated that snowfall would total 4 to 5 inches.
“We were just on the northern fringe of where it was coming down,” Lapis said. “We never ended up with the storm intensity we would have needed to come up with that 6 inches plus.”
For Isabelina Rodriguez, superintendent of Northampton schools, the decision to cancel classes Wednesday was made in the best interests of her students, and in anticipation of much more snow.
“It is one of the most difficult jobs a superintendent has, waking up at 4 or 5 in the morning and trying to look into a crystal ball and decide if the weather forecasted by the weatherman will end up being what they say it will be,” Rodriguez said.
Also choosing to cancel school Wednesday morning was Bob Brick, co-founder and director of the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School in South Hadley, who shared Rodriguez’s concern for the safety of his students.
“It was totally based on safety. In our case we have kids coming to us from all over western Massachusetts, so when you think about the weather, you have to consider the conditions everywhere else,” Brick said.
For Gary Binette, of Easthampton, the low snow total was welcome news, but a canceled school day meant spending the day indoors with two students who would have otherwise been in class.
“It was definitely weird the way it went down, how we didn’t end up with anything,” Binette said. “But I know (the closing) was all about safety.”
Dressed only in jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt, Steve Trevathan, of Northampton, pedaled his bicycle past Faces on Main Street Wednesday night and said because he enjoys snowboarding, skiing and sledding, he was “extremely disappointed” by another snub from Mother Nature.
“I walk to work and don’t have a car, so I try to catch a ride with a friend when there is enough snow falling, and I really haven’t had to do that yet this year,” Trevathan said, adding that he blames the lack of snow on global warming. He would have welcomed the opportunity to throw a snowball or two.
Although he hasn’t had the chance to hit the slopes yet this season, Trevathan said he’s hoping for more snow later on in the winter.
In preparation for heavy snowfall and slick driving conditions, local Department of Public Works employees were raring to go Wednesday morning. Many were sent home Wednesday afternoon after very little snow clearing, director Ned Huntley said.
“When we were getting ready for the storm this morning, we got a new weather update that we would be getting 1 to 3 inches instead of 5 to 8,” Huntley said. “We didn’t have to do anything except for a few chemical runs this morning. We sent our guys home this afternoon and they are basically on standby for the rest of the night.”
Huntley said a smaller crew worked into the night Wednesday, doing spot sanding on icy roadways and clearing the 1 or 2 inches that fell locally during the evening hours.
The anticipated snowstorm also provided the city’s first opportunity to use a new parking ban alert system, according to city Parking Director William Letendre, of Florence, who has coordinated its installation.
The fledgling system, which is still being created, uses a series of blue lights attached to traffic lights at intersections leading into the city to notify motorists of an on-street parking ban.
Only two of the system’s six lights were installed in time for the storm, Letendre said, one attached to a pole near the intersection of Pleasant and Holyoke streets; the other where Bridge Street intersects with Hawley and Market.
“We turned on what we had up,” Letendre said. “It is still a work in progress.”
Police and fire departments across Hampshire County were also preparing for a slick commute Wednesday morning, but after all was said and done, only several minor accidents were reported during the evening hours, none of which resulted in serious injuries.
Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.
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