Wow! What a day yesterday with highs in the mid to upper 50s and lot’s of afternoon sunshine. What goes up in January, doesn’t stay up, and the road downhill begins today. Highs today run in the mid to upper 40s and slide back a few degrees with an increasing northeasterly breeze late this afternoon. Clouds win on out this afternoon and by late-day and this evening, a few patches of drizzle/sprinkles are possible. Not all will see them, and precip totals are generally paltry, but enough to dampen the scene for some. AFC Championship football at Gillette features tailgating temps in the 40s, game ending temps in the upper 30s and some patchy sprinkles/mist possible, especially by 2nd half.
As cold air seeps in overnight, we’ll thrown in the chance for some spotty snow/sleet mixed in across the interior, mainly northwest of 95, and more so out near 495. The patchy mix/light rain showers are in and out tomorrow morning before the rain increases in the afternoon. Steady rain develops by late day, and we hammer out a whole lot of rain tomorrow night as easterly winds batter the coastline. This will be a nasty nor’easter, but without a lot of cold air in place, any significant snow/ice remains fairly deep inland. Northern Worcester County, the Berkshires and points north, have the best chance for busting the shovels and plows out. Ski country will feature a mix of snow and ice, so no big meltdown there.
Close to 95 and 495, an evening period of snow/sleet may kick in and some slick travel for the evening commute is certainly possible there, especially in the areas you see the pink shading in the graphic above. After that mix, it’s mostly a rain event inside 495 with rain totals pushing 1-3″ as the heaviest falls tomorrow night. That’ll wash away any minor accumulations in interior eastern Mass (outside 95 and near 495). Winds crank too, gusting 50-60mph along the coast tomorrow night, and may even gust past 60mph across the Cape and Islands. Farther inland, winds won’t be as strong, but some gusts to 30+mph are possible.
The coastal saving grace this go around… astronomical low tides. That means while minor erosion and flooding is possible with the Monday night and Tuesday AM high tides, overall, we should make out ok. The coast does have the best chance of some scattered power outages due to the wind knocking down trees branches/power lines in some locations.
Showers taper off late Tuesday and we dry out by Wednesday. Wednesday and Thursday head for near 50. Where’s winter? Near seasonable levels return by next weekend.
On a side note, if you have friends/fam visiting southern GA or northern FL today. Give them a heads up on the severe thunderstorm potential as a tornado outbreak is expected there. The Storm Prediction Center has put the area in a “high risk”, which is a serious situation for that area. In fact, SPC has hatched that area in a 30% chance of a tornado within a 25 mile point. That’s a high risk!
@clamberton7 – twitter