Alright, clearly the cold air is back in place today with highs in the 20s. That’ll allow for a bit of snow to break out predawn tomorrow morning, into late morning with a coating to an inch for most. Although, a few towns in the Worcester Hills could pick up 2″. Overall, no biggy, but enough to through some slick spots out there.
The much bigger storm comes Saturday night into Sunday. In fact, a winter storm watch is already posted for most of New England, away from the south coast.
Snow develops after 7pm Saturday night, becoming steadier and heavy after 10pm and continuing into early Sunday morning. By mid morning, then transition to sleet and freezing rain starts showing up near/south of the Pike. How far north that mixed line gets and how far away from SE Mass the rain gets will be fined tuned to the couple of days, but the overall theme of a moisture laden storm that throws down a mess will certainly be with us. After all, whether you get 17″ of mostly snow, or 8″ or snow, then a bunch of ice, still gives you quite the mess to clean up. In regards to ice (sleet/freezing rain), cheer for sleet, it’s easier to clean up and doesn’t lead to nearly the tree damage and power outages that freezing rain can lead too. The snap shot below is 8am Sunday. Heavy snow = blue, sleet = orange, freezing rain = pink, green =rain.
A foot or more of snow is likely for much of northern MA and VT/NH. Near a foot of snow is possible all the way to the Pike before a change to sleet/freezing rain. Lower totals will be across SE Mass.
Watch for a flash freeze across SE Mass too as arctic air comes charging back in during midday/afternoon. Wind chills go sub zero in the late afternoon and stay that way through Monday as bitter air wins out.
Gusty winds at the coast and minor coastal flooding Sunday morning is likely too. We’ll keep you updated.
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