A Winter Wonderland Ahead
After a pleasantly mild morning with temperatures about a dozen degrees above the average for this date in the range of 54-59 during the inbound commute, I am still predicting a winter wonderland unfolding tonight. The cold front shifted offshore by midday and colder air slowly seeped in during the afternoon but a faster decline is expected this evening as the precipitation from the next wave of low pressure arrives. The rain will become mixed with then change to an interim spell of sleet before it transitions to all snow from northwest to southeast across the region. Pavements, which were initially warmed by the morning high temperatures, will be cooling off as the surface finally chills and bursts of heavier sleet to snow occur after 11pm. Consequently, some roads are destined to become slippery eventually and the snow will begin to appear on grassy surfaces and the conifers with a final total of a coating to 3 inches plus by dawn. Some areas on the South Coast, Plymouth County and Cape Cod will have little or no snow appearing on the ground with perhaps some snow showers near the conclusion of the event. At daybreak, it will have cooled off to the near 30 farther north and west of Boston to just over 32 in the city to the middle 30s over southeastern MA. Obviously, it is not a big storm but will have an impact on many of us. With that in mind, the WBZ AccuWeather team has designed an I-Scale which is a measure of how any upcoming storm is going to impact you. On a scale of 1 which is low impact to 4 which is severe, we will apprise you of the potential impact of every storm this winter. The impact may be different from one part of the region to the next. For more detailed information on this, check the I-Scale explainer.
Most of the weekend will be quiet and cold as the flurries end first thing in the morning and the sky becomes partly to mostly sunny by late morning through the afternoon. Expect highs in the upper 30s tomorrow then lower to middle 30s on Sunday after near 20 degrees tomorrow night. As the next storm approaches from the southwest, high thin cloudiness will be appearing Sunday morning and the sunshine will fade away during the afternoon as the Pats host the Browns at Gillette Stadium. The wind will be near 10 mph from the west tomorrow then near 5 mph from the northeast on Sunday afternoon. As a zone of high pressure builds across the Northeast tomorrow night and Sunday, cold air will get locked in at all levels. The next storm system will contain two centers. One will be developing in the Midwest and shifting into the Great Lakes on Sunday as the secondary center forms over Delmarva and tracks near Nantucket on Monday. As a result, the air will support snow at the onset by late Sunday evening then as warmer air arrives aloft, there will be a turn to some sleet and freezing rain inland and a switch to plain along the coast in the early morning hours of Monday. Plan on a messy AM commute on Monday but this will not be a significant storm with no heavy precipitation or strong winds. The switch to rain will shift inland and taper off by midday or so. Much colder air will be flowing in from Canada the second half of next week with daily highs falling from the upper 30s on Tuesday to the upper 20s on Wednesday to the middle 20s on Thursday to perhaps the lower 20s to upper teens a week from today!!!!
Danielle Niles will post her thoughts tomorrow morning and I shall return later in the day.
One programming note: The 11PM WBZ News will be aired on WSBK38 tomorrow night due to college football.
Have a great weekend!
