With accumulating snow in the forecast overnight and into Friday morning, a Winter Weather Advisory has been issued for central MA, portions of the Merrimack Valley and Metrowest, and southern NH until noon Friday.
As for the forecast through this evening, the rain showers will continue as temperatures remain in the 40s.
Tonight, temperatures start to slip into the 30s as colder air sinks in from the northwest around midnight. With this colder air and the higher elevations in southern NH and central MA, that is when we will see that transition from rain to snow. That rain/snow line will continue to push south and east across the region through Friday morning, making for snow-covered and slick roadways (especially side streets in interior MA where a few inches of accumulation are possible).
2-4″ of snow is possible for interior MA and southern NH, and as we get closer to 495 to the coast, a coating to 2″ is possible. For SE MA and the Cape and Islands, this is mainly a rain event, with a few flakes mixing in late morning.
Not only do we have a Winter Weather Advisory, but we also have a Wind Advisory that has been issued for the Cape and Islands from 10PM Thursday to 2PM Friday, where gusts up to 50 MPH are possible, which could bring down tree limbs and create power outages. The wind will not be confined to the Cape, inland areas could even see gusts from 20-40 MPH through midday Friday.
The moisture also moves out by midday, but the wind and the cold sticks around a little longer. Wind chills will be in the 20s to low 30s for most of Friday afternoon – making for a glimpse of winter chill for the end of the week.
The wind calms down just in time for Halloween. It will still be chilly with highs into the mid-40s Saturday under mainly sunny skies. Don’t forget to check out the Halloween Full “Blue Moon” (it won’t be blue in color, it’s what we call the second full moon in a calendar month). We’ll have to wait until 2039 for the next full moon to land on Halloween night.
For Sunday, high temperatures bounce back to the mid to upper 50s (which is typical for the first day of November). We could see a few showers late afternoon, otherwise it is mostly cloudy.
The wind picks up again to kick off the work week and highs slip back into the 40s Monday and Tuesday before another warm-up Wednesday and Thursday with highs into the mid 50s to low 60s.
