Hard to believe that after being mild for back to back days, we’re talking about cold air and snow by tomorrow morning. While some of us will bust out the shovels and plows, other towns get off easy, with minimal accumulations. Just like in real estate, location, location, location is everything tomorrow with the haves and have nots in the snowfall department. Most of the problems travel wise will be near and south of the Mass Pike with the heaviest of the snow falling in CT, RI and much of SE Massachusetts, where a winter storm warning is in effect. It’s also a bit of a challenging forecast too, as there will be a narrow band of heavy snow that’ll stack up fast near the south coast. The question is, where does that sharp gradient set up?
Right now, I’d expect snow to break out between 4-7am south of the Mass pike, with locations near the Pike seeing snow closer to 7am and locations near the Cape and Buzzards Bay, closer to 4am. Snow will continue through the morning and then taper from northwest to southeast during the midday and early afternoon hours. From mid morning to early afternoon, snow rates may approach an inch or so an hour south of Route 44, helping to produce travel hazards as well as reduced visibility. From Boston to Worcester, where only an inch, maybe two, falls, the storm is more manageable with mostly wet main roads. Northern Mass and southern NH, there’s not much snow for you. Perhaps a coating to an inch there with some late-day snow squalls. We won’t have much wind either tomorrow, so that’s good. Below is the snow map as of Thursday afternoon. Again, a tight gradient is expected, and if the track adjusts a bit, these numbers will need to be adjusted. I’d expect a lot of near 5″ amounts south of Route 44 in Southeast Mass with locally up to 6″. Across the Cape and Islands, some towns may push 6-8″. Lot’s to track on this one… Check back with us for an update in the morning!
Behind the storm, comes the cold. Bitter cold and near record cold at that. Highs on Saturday struggle in the lower to mid 20s with wind chills near 5 by day and near -10 Saturday night. Basically, this weekend is a lot like last weekend. The coldest high temp on record for March 11th is 22 in Boston, set in 1874! We’ll be close to that.
There’s now question that the cold lingers into early next week, what becomes the point of interest though, is a potential coastal storm/nor’easter Tuesday into Wednesday. This far out, it’s not a lock, but certainly the possibility of a big storm is still there on the maps today. Bottom line, lots to follow and check back on next week too.
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