After a soggy 36 hour period this weekend of snow, sleet, freezing rain and rain, temperatures plunged overnight and froze all of that slush and water in place. Be careful this morning as black ice is likely, especially on side roads that may have less residual salt or sidewalks that many not have any salt on them at all.
The wind has been strong overnight and this morning with wind gusts in the 40s and even some reports over 50 mph. The wind will get even stronger through the daylight hours today.
We have a high wind warning in effect for much of Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire for wind gusts that could exceed 60 mph today. There’s a wind advisory in effect for Plymouth and Bristol counties, and the Cape/Islands. This type of wind speed alone would be good enough to cause some damage, especially in the high wind warning, but the added problem may be a little left over ice or crusty snow stuck to the tree limbs and power lines. That added little bit of weight will go a along way in addition to this type of wind.
The high wind warning and wind advisory go until 1am Tuesday morning (overnight tonight) but I suspect at that point we’ll all go under a wind advisory for the wind that stays with us overnight and through the day on Tuesday. The wind tomorrow will be one notch down from today, but I think still strong enough where we’re likely to see a wind advisory for the same power/tree damage concerns.
At a minimum these strong winds will drive our wind chills down from temperatures that are already quite cold. Temperatures this afternoon will stay in the 20s but that gusty wind will make it feel closer to 10°. Tonight is much the same as overnight lows will fall to the lower teens and feels like temperatures that drop below zero by tomorrow morning.
There’s also been quite a bit of chatter about the snow potential on Thursday. And last week it looked like that storm had some serious potential, but over the last 24-48 hours, the trend of this storm has been significantly farther south, keeping the most snow and impacts off shore. Keep in mind this storm is still four days away but as of today it looks like this will just be a brush by us. It is mostly an ocean storm with a few snow showers that may graze us — mainly the Cape and Islands, perhaps southeastern Massachusetts; but you see how close the heavy snow is. It’s a matter of miles and a trend that keeps going south may pull any chance of snow for all of us, but a slight trend back north would do the opposite. Right now it’s a “stay tuned” type storm and, at the moment, no need to cause any panic or concern.
