A few patchy light snow and rain showers move through today, out ahead of a cold front that sweeps in.
While temps manage to climb into the lower 40s early this afternoon, the numbers fade fast this evening as strong northwesterly winds kick in. Temps tonight drop back into the teens and lower 20s, and with the wind, wind chills drop into the single digits.
Wind gusts 20-30mph this afternoon and tonight, with a few gusts to 40mph across the Cape and Islands.
A much chillier air mass will be in place tomorrow, and despite the sunshine, temps won’t make it out of the low to mid 30s.
That colder air will set the stage for the first significant snow of the season for a large portion of southern New England Saturday night into Sunday.
As an area of low pressure traverses the country over the next couple of days, it’ll pick up moisture from the Gulf of Mexico as well as the Atlantic and push it into the cold air across the Northeast.
As it does so, snow will break out across the region late Saturday evening and through the day Sunday. A snowy Sunday is likely at Gillette!
There will be a developing coastal low of the Virginia coastline that heads toward Nantucket. The exact track and strength of that low will dictate the rain/snow line and how much precipitation gets in here.
As of now, the highest chance for all snow favors locations near and northwest of I-95. That’s where 6″ or more of snow is most likely. Especially where the air is the coldest, and the snow’s a bit fluffier… near and northwest of I-495.
Even in Boston, I do expect snow, it’s just that some mixing with rain is possible and the snow will be heavy and wet.
Along the coast, we’ll also have to watch for temps to drop from the mid 30s, back into the 20s, pretty quickly in the afternoon/early evening as winds turn back to the north. That’ll allow for untreated surfaces to turn icy and some slushy areas to freeze up.
Winds are strongest along the coast, gusting 40-50mph, with a few higher gusts possible across the lower Cape and Nantucket. Tides are astronomically on the lower side, so significant coastal flooding is not expected.
The light snow wraps up early Sunday evening and is long gone by the Monday morning commute. We’ll still have to watch for icy spots Monday morning though on untreated surfaces as temps start the day in the teens and low 20s.