Our weekend winter storm is hours away. It will bring us snow, a mix and wind Saturday evening through Sunday. Some locations could get over half a foot of snow. A closer look at the map giving you a tour of the expected snow accumulations is below. Keep in mind these will be the totals as of Sunday evening.
The biggest impact will be from the heavy snow accumulations creating travel disruption. For that reason, most of the state, with the city of Boston included, is under a Winter Storm Warning. There’s a Winter Weather Advisory for Bristol and Plymouth counties. Both run from this evening through late Sunday night.
Travel will be tricky tonight for areas north and west as the snow accumulates. Conditions will be poor away from the coast Sunday morning through midday.
There will be gusty wind especially along the coast. That combined with the heavy wet snow could lead to isolated power outages. Another concern is the potential for a flash freeze. Late afternoon/evening, the wind will shift more northerly and usher in colder air allowing temperatures to drop from northwest to southeast. Areas that were just slightly above freezing south of Boston and southeast will see temperatures quickly drop into the 20s leading to any untreated surfaces becoming icy. Coastal flooding is not a concern. Tides are not astronomically high this weekend.
Let’s take a closer look at the timing. Clouds will thicken up today as we remain in the mid/upper 30s. The wind will shift out of the east/northeast and help to initiate some light ocean-effect snow showers for the Merrimack Valley in the afternoon and evening. The main event arrives from the west with snow showers developing in the evening. The snow shield will be within Worcester County around 8 pm and continue east through about 10 pm. The rain/snow line shown below in pink is still along the coast with rain across Cape Cod at this point. Overnight, snow will fall at a moderate to heavy intensity inland, while the rain/snow line sags south. Most of us will wake up to snow showers Sunday morning. The snow will fall at a light to moderate clip for a brief period before there’s another burst of snow in the afternoon. The Cape ends with snow showers. As the wind shifts more northerly, temperatures will drop later in the day and that will lead to the threat of flash freezing.
The storm is gone by Monday morning, but we could still be left with some slick spots. We get a break from the wet weather Monday before our next storm Tuesday night into Wednesday. This looks primarily rain for most of us, outside of initial snow showers for the Worcester Hills. Down the road, another storm looks likely for next Saturday.
-Meteorologist Melanie Black