Our arctic front is cruising through New England, and the bitter cold air will soon follow. In between? Some gusty winds. All of this will not only impact your forecast over the next 24 hours, but will be important for the setup of our late-weekend storm.
But let’s start with the wind and the cold.
Gusts have already jumped into the 20s and 30s this afternoon, and will remain high through the night before starting to die down overnight. In the meantime, temperatures will fall to either side of zero by Saturday morning. Combine the two, and you get feels-like temperatures of -10 to -20, even -25 in high-elevation areas Saturday morning.
This is the kind of cold that can be downright dangerous if you area unprepared, so make sure that you are if you have to do anything outside! It’s also a good time to check in on neighbors and pets– indoors is the place to be.
Even Saturday afternoon, highs will top out in the mid-teens. With the wind, it’ll still feel like we’re near, if not below zero at times. At least it’ll be mostly sunny! (I’m trying to throw some optimism in here!)
Sunday morning’s lows will still be in the single digits, while Sunday afternoon will be in the low 20s.This cold will set us up for a largely powdery snow (at least for the start of this storm). That said, there are a few adjustments when it comes to the fluff-factor throughout the duration of the storm.
This storm is already coming to fruition across the South Central states, and millions across the country are preparing for impacts. In fact, more than 144,000,000 people are current under Winter Storm Warnings — that’s more than 1/3 of the US population!
Here in New England, we also have Winter Storm Warnings that go into place 7 AM Sunday morning and expire at 8 PM Monday evening with heavy snow expected within that time frame.
Right now, it still looks like snow showers begin midday, getting heavier and steadier in the evening/nighttime.
While precipitation will stay snow for must throughout the duration of the storm, there will be a period around midnight of a wintry mix for the South Coast and Cape, as well as coastal Rhode Island. This will lead to lower snow totals in these areas, though the numbers will still be pretty robust.
Snow will taper off slightly mid-morning on Monday… though it’s not the last we’ll see of this storm! Expect wrap around snow showers Monday afternoon/evening. It’s this final hurrah of snow that will put us at our snow totals, with the majority of people looking at 12-18″ by Monday night.
While some localized spots may still see 18″+, the introduction of some slightly warmer air during the duration of the storm could limit our “fluff factor”. Not to say it’ll demolish our snowfall numbers, but it’ll make 24″ tougher to achieve. Either way? It’s a lot of snow. More than most towns have seen in years for a single storm.
