In Franklin County and the North Quabbin region, the eastern parts saw the majority of snowfall during the first storm of the winter.
Orange and Athol had 2 to 3 inches of accumulated snow as of 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, with meteorologists forecasting roughly 5 to 8 inches by the end of the night.
“Orange is reporting snow and it’s coming down OK, but not as heavy as it is in the hills to the east,” said William Babcock, National Weather Service meteorologist. “As you head farther east on Route 2, in the Fitchburg area, we’re expecting about 12 (inches).”
Colin Killay, Orange’s superintendent of highway, cemeteries and parks, said his crews were on the road by 11 a.m. on Saturday.
“We called a couple contractors in to help with that,” he said around 4:30 p.m. on Saturday. “But we’re in full plowing right now trying to get the side streets done.”
By early evening, the town had seen about 3 inches of heavy, wet snow.
“We’re hoping the weather forecast stays like this now because it doesn’t seem like we’re going to get what they said we were,” he said, noting the original forecast called for up to 10 inches. “What we’re having trouble with now is we’re starting to have some trees come down.”
Killay said one downed tree caused a road closure on lower Holtshire and Wendell Depot roads.
Across the county, there were small clusters of power outages, with the most significant as of 5 p.m. being a power outage in Orange affecting 45 customers, according to the National Grid power outage map.
Athol Department of Public Works Superintendent Dick Kilhart, who said his department was in “good shape” Saturday evening, said the storm turned out to be “not bad.”
“It appears to be letting up a bit,” he said. “But this is supposed to go on until 11 tonight.”
Kilhart said his crews had been on the road, plowing and treating the town’s 110 miles of roadway, since 11 a.m.
“They’ll be out at least until the end of the storm,” he said. “I just spoke with our crew chief … and they continue to monitor and treat or plow as necessary.”
Kilhart said he is in regular contact with Precision Weather, a weather forecasting service that provides localized information for municipalities, to help him understand what to expect.
“People think you just go out there and plow slow and put the sand down … but we look at what the roadway temperature is going to be, things of that nature,” he said.
Parts of Shutesbury saw more than 8 inches of snow Saturday.
Farther west, less, if any accumulation was expected.
“Slightly warmer temperatures have held in the (Connecticut River Valley),” Babcock said, “just warm enough to melt the snow as it comes down.”
Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne