A Winter Storm Warning remains in effect for areas north and west of 495 until 7pm due to difficult driving conditions as rain flips over to freezing rain and sleet around daybreak. A Winter Weather Advisory remains in effect until 7pm for eastern MA, SE MA and the Cape where the icy mix will develop mid to late morning and continue into the afternoon.
Temperatures will tumble through the morning, the freezing rain diving in from northwest to southeast resulting in that changeover to an icy mix.
As for timing, this icy mix expands southward through the morning and continues into the afternoon before starting to break apart later this evening.
With hours of freezing rain and sleet, this will result in some ice accumulation. Up to 1/4″ of ice is possible for a good swath of the region. This is below the threshold for significant tree/power line issues, but it’s still enough that you’ll need the ice scraper for your windshield, bridges will become icy before the roadways and untreated surfaces will be especially slick. The issue with this morning commute is that crews were unable to pre-treat the roads since we’ve had rain leading up to this event. The rain would just wash away any pre-treatment.
Some snow could mix in with the sleet for southern NH around the Route 2 corridor in north central MA, but the rest of the region will see an icy coating.
Much colder air moves in for the weekend with highs only in the 20s both Saturday and Sunday (however, Sunday will be less windy, making it a little more bearable). It will be a cold start Sunday morning with a few locations starting
We start off in the upper 30s next week before jumping into the 40s by midweek. A rain/snow shower is possible for the Cape on Tuesday associated with the outer reaches of an offshore system, otherwise next week looks relatively quiet.
