It is too soon. I said it many times yesterday, “this storm will add insult to injury.” It’s still a mess on our roads, sidewalks, driveways and patios… and now all of that back-breaking shoveling you just finished today will need to be repeated tomorrow. It seems Groundhog Day will really feel like Groundhog Day the movie; didn’t we already do this?!
Either way, the storm is coming. Snow is expected all day Monday, with times of heavy snow and gusty winds. The good news is that this is not a blizzard. This is not as much snow as what we saw last week. The bad news is, at times it will seem very reminiscent of the “Blizzard of 2015.”
– Snow starts between 2:00-3:00am, and will be steady throughout the day. It will lighten up in the afternoon (3:00-5:00pm), but won’t taper off completely until later in the evening (7:00-9:00pm).
– This will affect both commutes on Monday. Snowfall rates could be between 1-2″ per hour.
– Temps inland will be very cold (in the teens), which means the snow will be light and fluffy and it will pile up quickly. Areas north and west of Boston can expect 12-16″ of snow. Yes, it’s a lot, but it’s still half as much as we got last week. There’s a little “silver lining,” right? In SE Mass. stretching down to the Cape and islands, temps will be milder. This means that wetter, heavier snow is expected here – which means accumulations will be less (see attached snowfall map).
– It will be windy, which means there could be bouts of blizzard-like conditions. However, this is not a blizzard – and the winds will not be hurricane force winds like what we saw last week.
– Coastal flooding is not a major concern this time around. As I mentioned, it will be windy – but this storm doesn’t pack the same power as the last storm. The biggest concern this time around will be along the South Shore and Cape Cod during the morning high tide (10:00am). Only pockets of minor coastal flooding are expected.
A viewer named Robert Krawitz commented on my blog yesterday with some interesting statistics (thank you, Robert, for bringing this to my attention!!). He says, “This could get interesting. According to http://www.erh.noaa.gov/box/climate/snowbos.html the 10-day record snowfall for Boston is 36.6″. We’ve had 31.7″ since Jan. 24th, and Feb. 2 would fall within the 10-day period starting that date. If we get at least 5″, we’ll eclipse that record. The 20-day record, incidentally, is 48.6″ in 1978.” This all checks out. Robert is correct… and we are expecting more than 5″ tomorrow. So, while this particular storm isn’t going to be “historic,” it could help us to break yet another record.
Once we get through this, we may have a few more days to recover! Speaking of recovery… maybe a snow day is just what the doctor ordered for the day after the Super Bowl. :c)
Go Pats!
