Tonight Through Sunday: An active winter weather pattern is expected to begin tonight and Sunday across Western and Central Mass. This active winter weather pattern is expected to last through the end of next week. Tonight and Sunday’s winter weather event is expected to be quite minimal with light snow expected to overspread areas along and south of the Mass Pike around midnight tonight. This light snow is expected to only last for a few hours and end just before sunrise Sunday morning. Any snow accumulation will be less than one inch. A second round of wintry precipitation consisting of light sleet, light snow and freezing drizzle will move in just after sunrise Sunday morning across much of Western and Central Mass. This icy mixture is expected to last through the morning on Sunday and come to an end around midday Sunday. A very light glaze of ice is possible during Sunday morning and this could some very slippery road conditions. Low temperatures tonight will be between 15 and 20 Degrees. High temperatures Sunday will be near 30 Degrees. Sunday Night & Monday: An area of low pressure is expected to track well south of New England. There is expected to be an east to northeast moist wind flow present and thus I would not be surprised to see some areas of very light snow, sleet and freezing drizzle across the area. Most areas should stay dry, but a few spots may see light icing conditions and slick conditions. Low temperatures Sunday night will be near 20 Degrees. On Monday, deeper overrunning moisture will begin to head northeastward towards our area. This poses a big forecasting problem as there are significant questions with whether this moisture will arrive here & if so, will it be in the form of snow or ice. At this point, I’m going with a much more pessimistic forecast & I think that we will probably see a light snow and sleet mixture north of the Mass Pike starting around midday Monday and continuing through Monday afternoon. Along and south of the Mass Pike, some spotty light freezing rain and sleet is possible during Monday afternoon. Amounts of snow and ice across the entire area will be light, but even a little bit of ice will lead to hazardous travel conditions along and south of the Mass Pike. High temperatures Monday will be near 30 Degrees. Significant Winter Weather Possible Monday Night Into Tuesday: An area of low pressure is expected to track from the Gulf of Mexico on Monday to near the South Coast of New England by Tuesday afternoon. The track of this storm system is going to be extremely crucial in determining whether this storm will bring mostly all snow to our area or an all-out ice storm. I continue to have a hard time believing the weather forecast guidance that are pushing this storm system inland across New England, especially with the Arctic dome over northern New England. I still think that we should see a low pressure system track along the Southern New England coast or just offshore. All this means is that we should see a potpourri of winter precipitation across the entire area beginning Monday evening and continuing through all of Monday night and Tuesday morning. Heavy Snow Threat – Areas along and north of Route 2 have the best chance of seeing more than 6 inches of wet, heavy snow with this storm for Monday night and Tuesday morning. This includes the far upper Pioneer Valley and northern Worcester County. Ice Storm Threat – I have considerable concerns that areas from the lower Pioneer Valley eastward to southern Worcester County and southward into northern and central Connecticut have the highest chance of seeing significant amounts of freezing rain and sleet on Monday night and Tuesday morning. This area includes Springfield, Worcester and Hartford. Upwards of one half of an inch of ice is possible and this could lead to extremely hazardous travel conditions, power outages and tree damage. This is a storm that I am watching extremely closely and I will have at least once a day updates for you between now and Tuesday. Another Snow & Ice Storm Is Possible From Thursday Afternoon To Friday Morning: Yet another storm system is expected to reach Southern New England by Friday morning. Yet again, I think that some of the weather forecast guidance may be tracking this third storm too far inland as there’s likely to be a dome of Arctic air present nearby & this should block this storm from an inland path. Instead, I’m leaning more towards yet another coastal track. At this point, I think that a mix of snow and freezing rain is possible north of the Mass Pike and mostly all freezing rain is possible along and south of the Mass Pike from Thursday afternoon through Thursday night and Friday morning. This storm could bring six inches or greater of snow and sleet north of the Mass Pike and the possibility of significant ice accumulations along and south of the Mass Pike. Bottom Line Is That this upcoming week looks like a complete and utter mess for winter weather. You should know that Wednesday and next Saturday will be the clean up days. Also, this is an extremely challenging and uncertain winter weather forecast and changes and refinements to the forecast are certain in the coming days.
Tonight: An area of high pressure is expected to be in control of our weather tonight. Some cloud cover is expected this evening, however, skies are expected to clear out somewhat after midnight. This partial clearing will allow for temperatures to drop to readings of 5 to 10 Degrees by late tonight and early Saturday morning. Saturday: High pressure remains in control of the weather on Saturday. This means that there should be a mixture of sunshine and clouds throughout the day on Saturday. High temperatures on Saturday will be between 25 and 30 Degrees. Saturday Night & Sunday: A weak area of low pressure is expected to track to the south of Southern New England on Saturday night and Sunday morning. This storm system should be just close enough to our area to produce some intermittent light snow on Saturday night. By Sunday morning, the very light snow may change to a period of light freezing rain, freezing drizzle and sleet south of the Mass Pike, while areas along and north of the Mass Pike remains as very light snow. The precipitation is expected to come to an end by early Sunday afternoon. Snow accumulations Saturday night and Sunday morning are expected to be very light with amounts of less than one inch expected. Some very light icing is possible south of the Mass Pike on Sunday morning & this could lead to some slick conditions. Low temperatures Saturday night will be between 20 and 25 Degrees. High temperatures Sunday will be near 30 Degrees. Next Week Looks Active For Weather Across Western & Central Mass: There is going to be A LOT of weather to talk about next week as we are going to be in a very active weather pattern. First item to discuss is for a bit of light snow and sleet late Sunday night and Monday. This is something that’s kinda snuck up on us as it appears there will be another area of low pressure that tracks to the south of our area. This storm could be just close enough to bring us a period of mixed snow and sleet late Sunday night into Monday morning. At this point, any accumulations should be about an inch or two. Second item to really watch is for the potential of a winter storm for late Monday night and all day Tuesday. It appears that an area of low pressure, which is expected to bring a significant snow & ice storm to the Southern United States on Sunday night & Monday, will travel off of the Mid-Atlantic coast and near Nantucket during the day on Tuesday. I am disregarding the weather forecast guidance that are forecasting a more inland track. The reason why is because there is expected to be a cold high pressure system to the north & this will block this storm from heading across inland parts of New England. Instead, I believe we should see a coastal storm track and this means that precipitation type should be mostly all snow across the entire area. This means that I think we should see snow begin across Western and Central Mass by or just after midnight on Monday night. Snow is then expected to continue through much of, if not all of the day on Tuesday. There is the possibility that some sleet and even some freezing rain could mix in with the snow around midday Tuesday. The snow with Tuesday’s system is expected to come to an end during the late afternoon or evening hours on Tuesday. I do think that more than 6 inches of snow accumulation is definitely possible late Monday night and Tuesday. A third storm threat is possible from Thursday afternoon through Friday. A third low pressure system is expected to head from the southern United States on Wednesday night and reach Southern New England by Friday morning. Yet again, I think that some of the weather forecast guidance may be tracking this third storm too far inland as there’s likely to be a dome of Arctic air present nearby & this should block this storm from an inland path. Instead, I’m leaning more towards yet another coastal track. At this point, I think that snow is a strong possibility from Thursday afternoon through Thursday night and Friday morning. Snow should come to an end Friday afternoon. There’s the possibility that freezing rain and sleet could mix in with the snow at times on Thursday night. This third storm could definitely bring enough snow to plow and snowblow (4 to 8 inches??). For Those Of You That Are Crying Uncle With This Very Snowy Month – The weather pattern should start calming down during the week of February 22 and in fact it’s possible that we may see milder temperatures as well.
