One year ago this week

It was one year ago that Mother Nature decided that we'd been having it a little too easy, so she covered everything with an inch of ice and let gravity do the rest. In a lot of ways, we haven't completely recovered.

If you drive North on route 12 out of the center of Sterling you'll notice that the east side of the road was never really cleaned up, and large trees and debris still remain just behind the guard rail. The Municipal Light Department is still working in the northwest corner of town to permanently repair power lines that were patched together last winter. Looking up at the trees in my yard, I still see large branches that are just teetering on the edge of other limbs, waiting for the next round of ice and snow and wind to bring them the rest of the way down.

Coincidentally, the next round may be here soon:

Snow is expected to reach the east slopes of the Berkshires and Connecticut valley between 3 and 5 am Wednesday... and should reach the Merrimack valley between 5 and 7 am. The snow should quickly become heavy at times... perhaps falling at the rate of one inch per hour during the Wednesday morning commute.

The arrival of milder air will cause the snow to change to sleet and freezing rain Wednesday morning... before an eventual change to rain Wednesday afternoon. There is still uncertainty as to how fast this transition will take place.

Snowfall totals of 4 to 8 inches are possible... with the 8 inch amounts likely to occur from the Worcester Hills into southwest New Hampshire. A light coating of ice is also possible.

Be prepared for the possibility of downed tree branches and scattered power outages.

I guess I'll need to get the generator out tonight and fire it up, just in case. I'm not planning on being caught off guard again.

A look back at the 2008 Ice Storm in Sterling.