These fast-hitting, intense blasts of snow and whipping winds can make for treacherous travel, especially on the highway.

A cold front sweeping across the Northeast on Wednesday will make conditions ripe for snow squalls. These brief, intense bursts of snow can make travel conditions dangerous by dropping visibility and slickening roads in an instant.

The latest Massachusetts snow storm was nothing to write home about, but it did fall in time to make the Wednesday morning commute a bit slower in much of the state. Snow delays were declared for some Massachusetts schools as a result.