Maybe you’ve been making tally marks and/or frowny-faces on your calendar through the past few weeks, counting the winter storms rolling through. If you haven’t been keeping track, I have been doing so for you! This is the fifth weekend in a row that Pete, J.R., Chris and I have joined forces for Storm Force coverage. Those poor guys need a day off! However, it feels that this winter will not be giving us a break anytime soon… and we’re all in this together.
If it’s any consolation, this storm is very different from the past storms. There is no fluff-factor this time, the arctic air isn’t in place, and we’re even expecting our first thaw in more than 16 days with more seasonable temps Sunday. This time around we’re measuring the snow in inches, rather than in feet.
Snow began to spread across the area this afternoon, and many locations are already reporting a quick inch. Areas to the north and west of Boston should pick up 3-5″ by early tomorrow morning (remember, no fluff-factor here, so plan on heavy & wet snow). South of Boston is a different story, with mild air working in changing things over to rain. We know the ground has been very cold, so even with air temps at 33-35 degrees, we could still see freezing rain. So, yes… you can count on slick travel tonight into tomorrow morning; if it’s not due to the few inches of snow making roads greasy, it will be patches of ice.
It may sound nice to some that we’re getting temps in the mid to upper 30s tomorrow. This is where we should be for this time of year, but we’ve been stuck under the influence of the Siberian Express (heard that term enough recently?). As I mentioned, this will be our first time above freezing since the 5th of February. Things will start to melt and localized flooding is a good possibility for many areas because of poor drainage. If you’re like the rest of us, you may have completely forgotten where your local storm drains are located underneath all of this snow! If you can find them, it would be wise to dig them out.
All of this wraps up as some drizzle and freezing drizzle tomorrow morning to the SE. Aside from the slick travel overnight tonight, this storm is an easy one. We’re not going to break any snow records with this one (though, we could make it up over the 100″ mark for the season in Boston). I think the real concern will be the thaw on Sunday, followed by another deep freeze on Monday. Yup. The arctic air is back in place come Monday, and we’re stuck in the single digits and teens once again. So, the big task tomorrow will be clearing away all of the snow, slush and “wet” that you can… so that our driveways and sidewalks don’t turn into ice-skating rinks on Monday. That sounds downright dangerous. Remember: “If you ‘french fry’ when you shoulda ‘pizza’d,’ you’re gonna have a bad time.” I hope someone got that South Park reference.
Who am I kidding? I know why you’re really reading my weather blog tonight… and it’s not because of the not-so-subtle humor and charm I try to insert into each one with care. You’re here because you want to know about Wednesday. Well, I have good news: For now, it looks like just light snow. Let’s hope it stays that way. The cold is back to wrap up the work-week, but we also get some bright sunshine. At this point, we know we have to take the good with the bad. – Bri
