Winter storm warnings (and some glee from local ski centers)

Watch out: Flooding and/or snow could be headed your way tonight, depending on where in the Catskills you are.

Eastern Ulster County is under a flood watch until early Thursday morning.

A winter storm warning is in effect until early Thursday morning for Greene and Ulster County:

...Winter Storm Warning Remains In Effect Until 6 AM EST Thursday... *

Locations...Central And Southeast Catskills...Berkshires And Southern Green Mountains.

Hazard Types...Heavy Snow.

Accumulations...5 To 10 Inches Of Snow Across The Southern Berkshires...6 To 12 Inches Of Snow Across Bennington County...And 8 To 16 Inches Of Snow Across Western Windham County...The Northern Berkshires And Central And Southeast Catskills.

Timing...Rain Changing To Snow This Evening And Continuing Through Tonight.

Impacts...Snow Covered Roads.

Winds...Becoming Northwest This Evening At 5 To 15 Mph With Gusts Up To 25 Mph Overnight.

Temperatures...In The Mid To Upper 30S This Evening...Dropping Into The Upper 20S By Thursday Morning.

Visibilities...Generally One Quarter To One Mile.

A Winter Storm Warning Means Significant Amounts Of Snow... Sleet...And Ice Are Expected Or Occurring. Strong Winds Are Also Possible. This Will Make Travel Very Hazardous Or Impossible.

A winter storm warning is in effect for Delaware County until Thursday morning. The alert predicts 8 to 10 inches of snow in the higher elevations.

A winter storm warning is in effect for Schoharie County until Thursday morning. The alert predicts accumulations of 5 to 10 inches of snow.

As of this posting (4pm), the forecasts for hydrographs in the Catskills region call for the Gilboa Dam and Pepacton to be near flood stage in the next 48 hours.

On the plus side: Ski centers are excited about the weather rolling in. Belleayre puts it succinctly on Facebook:

Bring it!

Jennifer Kabat blogs for Plattekill:

...the snow gods are having some big bad practical joke. It’s December 7th and the only snow of any consequence came for Halloween which now seems more trick than treat. Though Plattekill opened for a day and I went snowshoeing…

But now that winter is kicking in today, tonight, with some 7-10 for the Western Catskills. So, WITC [Winter In The Catskills] is officially in action.

Hunter Mountain gets jiggy with it:

Like whoa! National Weather Service says 6-12" coming our way. We'll have some news for you tomorrow morning about when y'all get to hit the slopes! First M. Nature has to smack 'em with some snow :D

And Windham is holding a Facebook contest, with lift-ticket prizes, for who can guess how many inches of snow a particular picnic table will get:

The 6-8 inch bubble is approaching Windham Mountain! How much do you think we'll get (Grinch's need not answer)? Guess the exact measurement of snow we get on the third picnic table from the left on the patio (in inches) and we will enter those with correct answers into a drawing for 2 lift tickets. Visit accuweather.com for more details on the storm.