We had a beautiful afternoon today to close out the work week but we’ll see major changes on the way for the weekend. We’re tracking rain, snow, and wind for Saturday with bitter cold on the way for Sunday.
TIMING:
Any plans you have this evening are A-OK. In fact if you need to get out tomorrow, I think you’ll be able to do that tomorrow morning — the earlier the better. It won’t be totally dry, but the showers tomorrow morning are lighter and more scattered in nature. As we head through the morning, rain will increase in coverage area and intensity. By 10am we’ll see heavy rain and downpours move into the area. We’ll have the rain for a few hours before it changes over to snow through the afternoon. The “wet” part of the storm (rain and snow) finishes by 6/7pm Saturday but the wind will linger through Sunday.
RAIN:
Rain will be heavy at times through the late morning and early afternoon. Most areas will pick up between 1/2″ and 1″ of rain Saturday. Because that falls in just a few hours, it is possible we see some ponding on the roads and street flooding.
SNOW:
Snow lovers, if you wanted one more snow storm to ride out of winter, this is not what you were hoping for. It had the potential, in fact ski country could see over a foot in spots! Our problem is the the cold air and center of the low are not timed out right. If the cold was here a little sooner or the storm hung around a little longer it would be a different story. Instead, the cold air is “chasing” the moisture, so it’s only able to change the back end of the storm to snowflakes. That said, as we saw on Wednesday, it doesn’t take a lot of snow to create problems on the roads. A winter weather advisory is in effect for the areas where the snow will transition first, hold on the longest, and likely coat the roads. That advisory is for covered roads and slick travel on Saturday.
Snowfall amounts are no where near the highest we’ve seen this winter. For most of us, it’s a slushy coating of heavy, wet snow. The farther north and west you go from Boston (and add some elevation) is where totals will be the highest.
WIND:
Wind will be what impacts us for the longest period of time. Even as the precipitation comes to an end, the wind will remain through Saturday night and a good chunk of Sunday. Like the precipitation, if you need to get outside tomorrow, target the morning hours as the wind will not have ramped up yet. But when it arrives it’s going to crank up fast! We have a wind advisory in effect for the Massachusetts coastline and Worcester County where gusts could reach 50 mph. Elsewhere expect gusts up to 40 mph. The advisory starts Saturday at noon and remains in effect until Sunday at 10am.
During the window of the advisory is when we have the potential of a few damaging wind gusts. After 10am Sunday we’re still not done with the wind. The good news is it will fall below damaging levels, but with the cold air moving in, will create some cold wind chills Sunday afternoon.
FLASH FREEZE:
The cold air that rushes in to change the back edge of the rain over to snow will also bring the potential of a flash freeze Saturday night. Temperatures will crash and all of the precipitation we see through the day will freeze up. If you have snow accumulation by mid afternoon Saturday, I’d scrape it to an area you’re ok with it freezing up solid. The rain and moisture on the roads will also freeze up and create black ice Saturday night and Sunday morning. If you must travel be EXTREMELY careful of that. Look at how fast temperatures fall on Saturday:
SUNDAY:
That cold air that rushes in overnight will set up a cold second half of the weekend. The good news is we’ll have the sun back but it is a bitter cold day. Temperatures will top out in the mid 30s — about 10° below average. But with that gusty wind we talked about earlier, the wind chill temperature will be in the teens and 20s all afternoon and evening.
