Between 20 and 31 inches of snow blanketed Western Massachusetts in an unprecedented snowstorm last Saturday according to meteorologist Charles Foley from the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Taunton, Mass.

“We have never had this much snow,” said Foley. “We have had snow earlier in the year, but not in this quantity. This is unusual.”

According to meteorologist Dan Brown from Springfield-based WGGB-TV abc40, the snowstorm “blew… away” previous records archived by Westover Air Base in Chicopee. Their records date back to about 1945.

“[It was] unprecedented, epic [and] historic,” said Brown.

While some people are tempted to lump the October snowstorm in with the tornado, microburst and tropical storm that barreled through the region earlier this year, Foley believes there is no scientific basis for the comparisons.

“This is just the happenstance of weather,” said Foley. He later added, “Weather systems are always changing. There is no connection between this storm and climate change. We are just in a very active weather pattern that produced the June 1 tornado and the flooding from Hurricane Irene. Next year could be completely calm.”

Foley had no theories as to what could be creating the October snowstorm or the highly active weather pattern. He did reiterate that this it is “nothing but weather.”

Foley also maintained that this storm says nothing about the type of winter New Englanders can expect.

“This storm doesn’t indicate if we will have a snowy winter,” said Foley.

– Collegian News Staff