The battle is on as Mother Nature continues to throw snow and freezing rain at us tonight, creating slick travel across much of southern New England. Snow totals won’t impress much, generally a coating to an inch from Boston to Worcester, 1-3″ in northern Mass and 3-6″ in southern New Hampshire before the change to freezing rain and rain occur. Although temperatures this evening go above freezing along the coast, winds likely turn back to the north early tomorrow morning along the North Shore, down to Boston, to Braintree and down route 24. That means several hours of freezing drizzle and freezing rain is likely, even in the City of Boston and interior Southeast Mass. Watch for slick travel to be widespread tomorrow morning and careful with those first steps out the door!
By the afternoon, towns near and east of I-95 do turn to plain cold rain, although that freezing rain is stubborn to leave across the interior. The hope is, that inland communities will warm to near freezing in the afternoon. allowing for treated roads to be many wet and to limit the ice accretion on the trees and power lines. If that’s the case, the “poor” travel you see in the chart below becomes “fair” by Saturday afternoon. Although if you head to the Lakes Region or interior Maine, it’ll be a battle with freezing rain all day long.
Christmas Eve looks good. Partly sunny and near 40. Clouds do increase in the evening as our next storm gets set to roll in. This storm, could mean a white Christmas for a good chunk of southern New England! By definition, a white Christmas is 1″ or more of snow on the ground. It’s a bit of a tricky forecast, but it appears that a low pressure just to our south will try to rapidly develop. That will throw some rain/snow our way by 2-3am Monday. As the coastal low strengthens and pulls away, we’ll flip from rain to snow in Boston before ending around 10am. It’s a fast moving system, but that snow could be steady to locally heavier early in the morning, especially inland. Right now, the thinking is for 3-6″ northwest of 128, and rain turning to a 1-3″ of snow in and around Boston with little snow across Southeast Mass and the Cape and Islands. Any track change would change these numbers, but 2.5 days out, this is how it looks. Travel in the afternoon Christmas should fair ok with dry air moving in.
There will be no lack of cold after Christmas as arctic air floods in. That means mid to late-week, we’re single digits for lows and teens to near 20 for highs. That cold air may help set the stage for another storm by late Friday-Saturday. Something to watch.
Stay safe on the roads and Merry Christmas to those celebrating this Holiday weekend.
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