CBS3 meteorologist Mike Skurko said Western Massachusetts could see record-breaking cold Saturday morning.
SPRINGFIELD -- Snow removal from city streets should wrap-up by noon, but trucks will be out sanding and salting through the weekend as needed, Public Works Superintendent Alan Chwalek said Friday morning.
“Road conditions are rapidly improving,” Chwalek said mid-morning, adding that DPW trucks are working another run on the city’s main arteries.
State police and police in Springfield, West Springfield, Holyoke and Chicopee reported no major problems during the Friday morning commute.
Thursday morning, the start of the storm, saw major traffic headaches in the southbound lanes of Interstate 91 in Longmeadow and in the westbound lanes of the Massachusetts Turnpike in Westfield thanks tojack-knifing tractor trailers.
No injuries were reported in either crash.
CBS3 meteorologist Mike Skurko said Springfield received some 6 to 9 inches of powdery snow and that the brutally cold temperatures will linger through Saturday.
Wind chills in the Springfield area were about 10 to 15 degrees below zero early Friday morning, and are expected to stay below zero throughout the day, Skurko said.
Record low temperatures are anticipated by Saturday morning, as overnight lows drop to 15 degrees below zero in Springfield, Skurko said. The record low for Saturday is -7, set at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Conn. in 1981.
Chwalek said the brutal cold makes snow removal operations especially challenging. “Temperatures this low really prevent the chemicals that we use -- the salt, the calcium -- from doing as effective a job that we would hope for,” he said. “We will be in much better shape as the temperature gets a little warmer.”
Temperatures will see a high of 36 on Sunday and an even balmier 39 on Monday before temperatures once again dip into the single and even negative numbers later in the week, Skurko said.