Storm System Looks To Stay Just South Of The Area Preventing Widespread Accumulating Snow On Saturday Morning Across Western & Central Mass

Some Light Snow Is Expected Late Tonight & Saturday Morning: An area of low pressure now located over the lower Ohio Valley at the time of this writing is expected to track off of the Mid-Atlantic coast by Saturday morning and then remain well south of New England during the day on Saturday. This storm should remain far enough south to prevent much of the area from receiving enough snow to plow late tonight and Saturday morning.

One area that I’m watching closely though is areas near and especially south of the Mass Pike where this storm may come close enough to bring 1 to 2 inches or so of snow accumulation. North of the Mass Pike, this storm system should remain far enough away to prevent much snow at all to accumulate.

As it stands now, light snow will gradually overspread the area just before sunrise Saturday morning with periods of light snow expected to continue through much of the morning. The steadiest light snow looks to occur near and especially south of the Mass Pike with areas across the northern Worcester Hills and the Route 2 corridor probably not seeing any snow at all.

Snow amounts late tonight through Saturday morning will range from nothing at all across the Route 2 corridor and the northern Worcester Hills to a dusting at most across areas north of the Mass Pike, including the I-290 corridor, the Route 9 corridor and the Worcester Metro to perhaps 1 inch of snow for areas near the Mass Pike to 1 to 2 inches of snow across areas south of the Mass Pike, including the I-84, I-395 and Route 146 corridors.

Low temperatures tonight will be between 20 and 25 Degrees.

Snow Showers & A Possible Snow Squall Or Two Expected Saturday Afternoon: Even though that low pressure system moves away by Saturday afternoon ending any leftover light snow by midday, an upper level trough of low pressure is expected to track across the area during the afternoon.

This trough could tap into a little bit of unstable air to produce some scattered snow showers between 1 pm and 5 pm Saturday. If there are any snow squalls around, they should be very isolated as the atmosphere shouldn’t be that unstable. Any snow shower activity will be capable of putting down a quick coating of snow.

Snow shower activity will come to an end by early Saturday evening.

High temperatures Saturday afternoon will be between 30 and 35 Degrees.

Sunday and Monday: More clouds than sunshine can be expected on Sunday with high temperatures near 35 Degrees.

Lots of sunshine looks likely for Monday with high temperatures near 35 Degrees.

Tuesday Through Thursday: A stretch of quiet weather looks to continue through the middle part of next week as an area of high pressure builds over the area.

Tuesday looks sunny with high temperatures near 40 Degrees.

Wednesday is expected to be sunny with high temperatures between 40 and 45 Degrees.

Thursday looks partly sunny with high temperatures near 40 Degrees.

Thank You: As always, I thank you for your continued support. If it were not for you, I would not be able to do a job that I love so very much – forecasting the weather for Western and Central Mass. Please help us alleviate the costs required for producing these weather forecasts for Western and Central Mass by donating. Thank you so much in advance!!

MAKE A DONATION TO SUPPORT ROUTE 20 WEATHER - https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/Route20Weather?locale.x=en_US

I Also Accept Donations Through Venmo. My Venmo Link Is - https://account.venmo.com/u/Robert-Lightbown

A Quick 1 To 3 Inches Of Snow Is Expected Tonight

It looks like a really quick shot of snow will affect the entire area this evening.

Snow will overspread all of Western and Central Mass by about 8 pm this evening.

The snow will then continue for a few hours this evening before it comes to an end around 1-2 am.

Snow amounts tonight will be in the 1 to 2 inch range across much of the area. The exception may be across the northern Worcester Hills and especially near and north of Route 2 where 2 to 3 inches of snow can be expected. This will be a light and fluffy snow.

Besides the snow tonight, it will be pretty chilly the next couple of days due to a cold gusty wind.

High temperatures today will be between 30 and 35 degrees. Winds today will be West at 10 to 20 mph.

Low temperatures tonight will be between 25 and 30 degrees. Winds will be West and increase to 15 to 25 mph with gusts to 40 mph after midnight tonight.

Wind chill temperatures will be near 10 degrees by late tonight.

High temperatures Friday will be between 30 and 35 degrees with plenty of sunshine. Winds will be Northwest at 15 to 25 mph with gusts to 40 mph.

With This Storm Done We Now Look Towards Thursday Night’s Snowfall Across Western & Central Mass

The storm system which brought 2 to 5 inches of snow across the lower Pioneer Valley and 4 to 9 inches of snow to Central parts of Mass is now pulling away from the region. Officially, I recorded 7.3 inches of snow here in Sturbridge from this storm. Other snowfall total reports include 5 inches in Wilbraham; 4 inches in Ludlow; 9 inches in Dudley; 8 inches in Charlton; 7 inches in Webster & Oxford; 6 inches in Auburn; 5.6 inches in Shrewsbury & 4.6 inches of snow at the Worcester Airport.

How close was this storm to being a blockbuster snowstorm? Well, just a few miles to the south, West Hartford received a whopping 15.2 inches of snow and Tolland recorded 12.5 inches of snow.

Anyways, let’s move on from this huge, epic headache of a storm onto the next snow threat, which looks to occur on Thursday night.

Snow Expected On Thursday Night: A fast moving low pressure system is expected to track southeastward across central New England on Thursday night before moving into the Gulf of Maine on Friday morning. This storm system is likely to bring with it a swath of snow that affects the entire area during Thursday night with the snow ending around sunrise Friday morning.

Current indications seem to point towards snow overspreading Western Mass by about 7-8 pm and then overspreading Central Mass by about 8-9 pm or so Thursday evening.

Snow is then expected to continue throughout Thursday night before it comes to an end around sunrise Friday morning.

While snow amounts are anticipated to be somewhere in the 2 to 4 inch range across the entire area, this is something that’ll need to be monitored.

The reason why is because the dynamics and forcing with this storm are pretty impressive and it could produce an area of very fluffy snow that’s able to put down a decent accumulation in a short period of time.

So, for now, I am expecting total snow amounts of 2 to 4 inches of very fluffy snow during Thursday night across all of Western and Central Mass.

Even More Snow Looks Possible On Saturday: Another low pressure system is expected to track off of the Mid-Atlantic coast during Saturday. How close this storm system gets to our area will determine whether it snows or not on Saturday. Some model guidance such as the GFS model shows a track close enough to bring a few inches of snow during Saturday. Other model guidance such as the European model is too far south and thus we stay snow-free this weekend.

At this point, I’ll just say that there might be a storm that could bring us a bit of snow on Saturday, but the actual chances of it occurring are less than 50 percent. This means don’t change any plans you may have for the weekend.