Being in the weather business for almost two dozen years gives you a unique perspective on the seasons. One constant that I’ve noticed is that each season seems to reach a peak, then – either gently or dramatically – subsides. We fry in the summers with unyielding heat, then one cold front changes everything, and we’re thinking fall. We’ll freeze our fannies off in arctic air, then the next batch of cold doesn’t seem that bad. We’ll get hammered by snowstorms, then – poof – we can’t buy a flake of snow (and sometimes vice versa).
So, as we face the prospect of the second nor’easter in as many days, I offer this: we’re at a turning point. After this storm passes, jetstream energy (which feeds storms) will soften, we’ll slowly turn to a warmer phase, and the cold and storms will lose their bite.
Now that the warm and fuzzies are out of the way, let’s dig into this nasty storm.
- Flakes are flying in Worcester County, but the main startup for E. Mass is 2-4pm. May even start as rain and mix along the coast, but change to all snow after 5pm.
- Heavy snow from 6-10pm (Eastern & SE Mass).
- Wraps after midnight
- Winds ramp up at the coast. Gusts top 50mph on Cape Cod.
- Appears now there WILL be some splashover at high tide on the north-facing beaches of Cape Cod at high tide 10-11pm ton.
That’s it? Nothing more? Oh yeah, we might be near blizzard criteria. And yet, we might not. It really depends on how this storm deepens late tomorrow night. No doubt this will be a blizzard in the Gulf of Maine and when this moves into Nova Scotia (fair warning), but when it’s in our backyard, it may miss it by a whisker – and even then, your best chance will be on Cape Cod.
Blizzard as defined in the AMS’s Glossary of Meteorology.
Nonetheless, here are the snow totals:
Based on the new information tonight, I’ve added a new color to the Cape. Simply put, this storm is going berserk tonight, and you don’t wanna be anywhere near it when it does. Unfortunately, since the Cape sticks out, it will almost be probing the storm as it passes off Nantucket. It’s here that I think over a foot of snow will fall (sideways in the wind). Snowfall rates during the late evening could top 2-3″ per hour as this storm drills for oil (metaphor).
Sunday is cold, but not bitter. And that change or “turn in the corner” starts next week…after a mini storm on Tuesday.
Hang in there.
Pete