For Tonight: Cloudy skies are expected throughout tonight as a northeasterly wind flow pulls Atlantic moisture into the region. Low temperatures will be near 25 Degrees. Winds will be Northeast at 10 to 20 mph.
Sunday: That persistent northeasterly wind flow looks to continue during Sunday while an area of low pressure tracks across the central and eastern Great Lakes region.
Skies throughout the day Sunday will be cloudy across the entire area.
Snow is expected to begin in the Berkshires just after midday Sunday and looks to reach the Pioneer Valley of Western Mass by mid-afternoon. It’s possible that it’ll begin snowing as far east as the western Worcester Hills by late afternoon Sunday.
It should be noted that roads will likely be getting slippery by late Sunday afternoon across all of Western Mass with things possibly becoming lightly snow covered as far east as the Mass Pike-I-84 interchange by sunset Sunday.
High temperatures will be between 30 and 35 Degrees. Winds will be Northeast at 5 to 10 mph.
Snow Is Expected Sunday Night Into Early Monday Morning: That low pressure system is expected to move on a southeasterly direction from Western New York State during Sunday evening to the south of New England by late Sunday night and Monday morning.
It will be snowing everywhere across Western and Central Mass by Sunday evening with the snow expected to continue through the midnight hour of Sunday night. During the late night hours of Sunday, it appears that the snow will end from north to south across the region.
This means that the snow will end across areas near and north of Route 2 just a little after midnight. The snow is then expected to come to an end across areas near and north of the Mass Pike by about the 3 to 5 am time frame Monday morning. All areas of Western and Central Mass should see the snow end by about sunrise Monday morning.
The biggest forecast question in terms of total snow amounts is how far east will the accumulating snow make it into Central Mass. The highest snow totals are likely across Western Mass with less snow expected the further east you travel across Central Mass.
At this point, it appears that snow totals will range from a dusting across far eastern parts of Worcester County to about 1 to 2 inches of snow accumulation across areas of Central Mass that are near and west of I-190 and I-395. Across Western Mass, snow totals of 2 to 4 inches are expected with the possibility of more than that over the Berkshires.
That said, it should be noted that some of weather forecast guidance are showing widespread snow totals of 3 to 6 inches across all of Western and Central Mass. This is something that’ll have to be watched out for, just in case the snow totals end up trending higher across Western and Central Mass.
Roads, parking lots and driveways will be snow covered and slick from later Sunday afternoon through Sunday night across all of Western Mass, as well as across areas of Central Mass that’s near and west of I-190 and I-395.
Skies are then expected to become partly sunny by about late morning Monday with partly sunny skies expected during the afternoon on Monday.
Low temperatures Sunday night will be between 25 and 30 Degrees. High temperatures Monday will be near 35 Degrees.
Winds on Sunday night will be Northeast at 5 to 10 mph. Winds on Monday will be North at 10 to 20 mph.
Tuesday Through Wednesday: Quiet, but cold weather is expected for Tuesday through Wednesday as we wait for a possible late week significant winter storm. Tuesday is expected to be sunny with high temperatures near 35 Degrees. Wednesday looks sunny to partly sunny with high temperatures near 35 Degrees. Thursday: Clouds are expected to be on the increase throughout the day as a low pressure system takes shape over the southern United States. This storm system has the potential to bring the entire area a significant winter storm. High temperatures will be between 35 and 40 Degrees. A Significant Winter Storm Is Possible For Friday (12/16) Through Next Saturday (12/17): While the exact details of the late week storm still need to be figured out, there’s the possibility that a coastal storm could bring the entire area quite the storm from Friday through next Saturday. A storm system is expected to push into the Plains states and the Midwestern United States by mid-week before heading towards the northeastern United States. Normally, storm systems that approach our area from the west are able to introduce milder air leading to mostly all rain. This time though, it’s much different and I’ll explain why. A huge blocking high pressure system that will extend from Greenland into Canada will act as a provider of cold air that’ll push southward into our area. Because cold air is much denser than warm air, it’ll be nearly impossible to scour out of the region leading to any precipitation from a storm system to fall as snow. Additionally, that low pressure system will take the path of least resistance. This means that it will not track right into a cold, dense air mass and instead move along a sharp temperature boundary to the south of New England. Because of this, I think we’ll see that storm system over the Midwestern United States reform near the Mid-Atlantic coast late Thursday and possibly become a full-blown nor’easter as it tracks past the Cape later Friday into Saturday. This all means that either all snow or a messy mixed bag of snow, sleet and freezing rain may begin across our area either late Thursday night or during Friday morning. This wintry precipitation, which could be quite heavy in intensity, is then expected to last through the day Friday, all of Friday night and into next Saturday morning before it slowly comes to an end next Saturday afternoon. I know you’re probably already seeing posts on social media of such things as a blizzard, a storm of the ages and stuff like that. My recommendation is to ignore those hyperbole posts as there’s still a lot we don’t know about this storm. So, let’s slow our roll and just watch this storm and see what it may do. There’s more than enough time to keep an eye on this storm and I’m going to have frequent updates for you. Bottom line though is that we may all be walking in a winter wonderland by late next week into early next weekend. The question that still needs to be answered is how much of a winter wonderland will we be walking through.
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