It’s cold now, but it’s only getting colder as another blast of arctic air takes over New England. Temperatures will be in the upper teens/low 20s today, but will fall between -2 and 5 degrees overnight! On top of that, wind gusts increase on Friday morning, jumping into the 20s, and staying that way through Friday afternoon. With that, it’ll feel like 10, even 20 degrees below zero on Friday morning, with wind chill values staying below zero for most of the day.
With that in mind, the NWS has issued a Cold Weather Advisory for most of New England, as well as an Extreme Cold Warning for the Berkshires. These alerts will go into place tonight, and last through late Friday morning.
The coldest air temperatures come through Saturday morning. At this point, we’ll wake up to lows between -3 and 3 degrees. Thankfully, the wind won’t be as gusty, so while wind chill values will still be below zero, they won’t be as extreme as Friday morning’s will be.
The overall trend, even through the weekend, is below-average… to say the least.
The week-long cold stretch is a small part of the equation when it comes to our weekend storm. I’ll be entirely honest, there’s still plenty to sort out with this storm. In particular, there are still some discrepancies in regard to the storm’s track. The moisture and cold (two big storm ingredients) are there, but without the right track, they won’t really matter. You can see, in the example below, the differences between the European and the American models, with the American model (right) keeping the storm farther out to sea, while the European model (left) brings it closer to our snowstorm threshold. This is just one example, but it’s a fitting look at why this storm isn’t entirely nailed down just yet.
With that variability in mind, the most likely areas to have big impacts from this storm (especially winter weather impacts), are the Cape and Islands, though the coast in general has a much higher potential for snow and strong winds than interior New England does.
On that note, coastal impacts and gusty winds are a main focus of this system, unlike the storm we saw last week. Gusts could get into the 50s or even higher for the Cape and Islands especially. With the wind and waves, minor coastal flooding isn’t out of the question during high tide. That said, even wave heights and wind gusts could diminish should this storm track move east.
Part of the issue here is that the storm hasn’t actually formed yet. The energy that will help this storm come together is still waaaaay up north in Canada. Once the puzzle pieces come together, it will be easier to get a read on what will happen next. In the meantime, we’ll be busy (no surprise) here in the weather center! Stay tuned, and we’ll continue to keep you updated as we round out the week.