Turbulent Stretch Of Weather To End With Flash Freeze Saturday
BOSTON (CBS) - We are in for another turbulent period of weather.
Over the next 48 hours we will have enough different types of weather to fill a Sunday morning crossword. From 50's and thick fog to rain and thunder to wind, flooding, ice, snow and a flash freeze. You could teach a solid course of Weather 101 on just the events over the next couple days!
Here's what you can expect.
FRIDAY
A rainy day, with about .5-to-1.5 inches falling between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
If this were the end of the rain story, it really wouldn't be a big deal.
Some very big puddles, some pockets of street flooding, but nothing overly impactful just yet. Temperatures on Friday should easily reach the mid 50's, undoubtedly breaking a few records in the Northeast. Boston and Worcester will likely NOT see any high temperature records (Boston: 61 in 2017, Worcester: 57 in 2017).
FRIDAY NIGHT
The rain starts to intensify Friday night into Saturday morning.
The heaviest rain will likely be located across eastern and southeastern Mass., including some very heavy downpours and perhaps a few rumbles of thunder. Combine the heavy rain with overnight temperatures still in the 50's and some significant street/urban flooding is inevitable. Rainfall totals in parts of the area (east/southeast) could range between 2-to-4 inches+ by Saturday morning.
SATURDAY
As the rain continues to pour down Saturday morning, a temperature crash will be arriving from west to east.
Around dawn on Saturday we will have temperatures near 60 over parts of southeast Mass. and in the 20's in western Mass. That cold air will quickly spread eastward Saturday morning, changing the rain over to a mix of ice and snow. The good news is that the precipitation will be coming to an end by midday Saturday so there shouldn't be much chance for any significant ice or snow accumulation. The main concern during the day on Saturday is for a flash freeze. Any standing water (and there will be a lot of it) will freeze up quickly.
FLASH FREEZE TIMING
7 a.m: Springfield MA to Fitchburg MA to Nashua, NH
10 a.m: All areas north of the Massachusetts Turnpike now below 32 degrees including Worcester and Boston.
1 p.m: All areas west of the Cape Cod Canal now below freezing (the entire state except the Cape and Islands)
4 p.m: All areas below 32
WIND
During Friday night and Saturday morning the winds will gust between 20-to-40 mph over most of the area, especially centered over southeastern Mass.
In fact there may be a few gusts to 50 mph over Cape Cod and the islands.
PATRIOTS GAME
Headed to the Patriots game at Gillette Stadium? Lucky!
The precipitation will be over but the temperatures will be dropping.
Any standing water in the parking lots or on the roads early in the day will have turned to ice. Temperatures will drop from the upper 20's at the start of the game to the low 20's by the time that Pats are celebrating their victory.
WHAT'S NEXT?
The cold that arrives on Saturday will stick around a while (again).
While not nearly as harsh as our last cold outbreak, we are likely in for another stretch of several days below freezing (Sunday into next week). So any ice left on your driveway from the flash freeze won't be melting anytime soon.
Then, we will be watching for a potential snow storm around the middle of next week. Stay tuned for more on that!
And finally, it appears that a prolonged January thaw is likely from later next week through most of the rest of the month! The weather pattern will likely shift into a ridge on the East Coast and trough in the West Coast (the opposite as it has been recently).
So clearly a lot of weather to go through in the coming days and weeks! As always, we will keep you updated on WBZ-TV and CBSBoston.com.
Follow Terry on Twitter @TerryWBZ
