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First Snow Of 2013 Brings Several Inches To Several Towns

BOSTON (CBS) - After basking in the balmy lower 60's two days ago, we're dealing with accumulating snow this morning!

Check: Interactive Radar  |  Current Conditions  |  Weather Blogs

Most of it was over by 10 a.m. with much lighter occasional to periodic precipitation in the form of flakes, snizzle, drizzle or sprinkles to follow later this morning into the afternoon.

Most of the region will end up with 3-to-5 inches with a few isolated totals at 6 inches and, unlike preceding storms, that includes the coastline of the North Shore through Boston onto parts of the South Shore.

Closer to the coast of southern Plymouth County southwestward to southern Bristol County, amounts in the 1-to-3 inch range are likely with all rain over all of Cape Cod.

As the heaviest precipitation is exiting eastward during the morning, the mix-rain line will be advancing northward from the New England South Coast into Bristol County and Plymouth County.

Consequently, there will be a transition to rain, sprinkles and mist from south to north. That transition line may be positioned near or just south of the Massachusetts Turnpike by noon.

Temperatures will rise a few degrees to 32-to-37. The good news is that there is little or no wind with this system and there will be no coastal flooding with the 2:30 p.m. high tide. The culprit is a flat wave of weak low pressure which will scoot way out to sea tonight and clearing will follow coming down from the northwest. Meantime, a developing storm over the southeastern U.S. will track northeastward and likely bypass us out to sea while intensifying late tonight and early tomorrow.

REST OF THE WEEK

Looking upstream, there is a cold front charging toward south central Canada and the Great Lakes. This frontal boundary will pass through the Boston area late tomorrow afternoon to early evening.

Ahead of it, it should be partly sunny with a freshening westerly breeze and highs back to the lower 40's tomorrow afternoon.

After the frontal passage, we'll receive a piece of the arctic air mass from Canada. That means it will be in the chilly teens early Friday morning with afternoon highs only 24-to-28.

A ridge of high pressure will build in from the west later Friday and Friday night. With the ridge south of the region on Saturday, a warming southwesterly wind will increase up to 15-25 mph in the afternoon. Expect highs back in the lower 40's again.

Similar temperatures are on tap for Sunday but another cold frontal passage will cause cooling later in the afternoon. During the big game at Gillette Stadium in the evening, plan on falling temperatures from near 30 at kickoff down through the middle 20's by 10 p.m. with strong, gusty westerly winds of 15-35 mph.

There will be much less wind on Monday as we await to see what happens with a lobe of energy and moisture coming in from the Great Lakes.

At the present time, it appears that a low pressure system will be tracking toward the New Jersey coastline on its way to deepening into a gale center over the ocean. As it quickly passes by, we should receive a period of mostly light to perhaps briefly moderate snow amounting to a couple or so inches.

IF the storm decelerates and deepens more rapidly, the outcome would be much different with heavier snow. The odds do not favor that scenario currently but it bears watching over the next few days.

In any event, as it departs, it will capture a larger chunk of the arctic chill as the wind gusts to 40 mph or higher Tuesday night into Wednesday.

Expect high temperatures in the upper 20's Tuesday then only in the upper teens Wednesday. There could be another storm of snow and rain here at the end of next week.

Make it a great day!

You can follow Barry on Twitter at @BarryWBZ.

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