For Tonight: Skies will start out clear to partly cloudy this evening with skies becoming cloudy by after midnight. Low temperatures will be near 35 Degrees. Winds will be West at 10 to 20 mph before midnight and West at 5 to 10 mph after midnight.
Easter Sunday: A northwesterly wind flow is expected to produce a mixture of sunshine and clouds throughout the day on Sunday. High temperatures will be near 55 Degrees. Winds will be West to Northwest at 10 to 20 mph.
Monday: A weak low pressure system is expected to pass well south of New England.
Skies during Monday will feature a mixture of sunshine and clouds and there could be some scattered showers around across areas south of the Mass Pike.
High temperatures will be between 45 and 50 Degrees. Winds will be East at 5 to 10 mph.
Tuesday & Tuesday Night: An area of low pressure is expected to track from the Ohio Valley.
Rain from this low pressure system looks to overspread the entire area by Tuesday afternoon. The rain then looks to continue through Tuesday night across much of the area. The exception to this could be across the northern Worcester Hills and the Berkshires where the rain could change to snow during the late night hours of Tuesday night.
High temperatures Tuesday will be between 45 and 50 Degrees. Low temperatures Tuesday night will be near 35 Degrees.
A Strong Storm System Will Bring Rain & Wind Wednesday That May Change To A Pasty Wet Snow Wednesday Night & Thursday: It appears that a coastal storm system will develop during the day Wednesday along the Mid-Atlantic coast. This storm system is then expected to become a strong storm system as it slowly tracks to near the Cape by Thursday. Substantial amounts of rain with strong winds are expected Wednesday that could change to a pasty wet snow Wednesday night and continue through Thursday leading to heavy amounts of snow across the Worcester Hills and the Berkshires.
While the weather forecast guidance are in pretty good agreement with the evolution of the coastal storm, they are not in good agreement on how quickly this storm system will consolidate, organize and strengthen. On one hand, the GFS model shows a more delayed consolidation which would lead to a light to moderate snowfall. On the other hand, models such as the Canadian model and the European model looks a lot more consolidated and organized and this leads to a heavy snowfall that brings down trees and power lines for the area from the north side of Worcester northward through the northern Worcester Hills and a moderate snowfall elsewhere across the region.
At This Point, My Thinking Is To Go With a more conservative type forecast as a really heavy snowfall is tough to achieve in early April. Obviously it happens (e.g. April 6, 1982, March 31-April 1, 1997), but more often that not, these early April snowfalls fail to really produce.
Rain looks to occur across the entire area during a large part of Wednesday. Some snow may mix in with the rain during Wednesday afternoon across the northern Worcester Hills and the Berkshires. Overall, no weather issues are anticipated during the day Wednesday.
As we get into Wednesday night, the weather looks to potentially change drastically as the rain changes to snow everywhere across the region. The changeover from rain to snow looks to first occur across areas north of the Mass Pike and across the Berkshires during the evening. As we get into the after midnight hours of Wednesday night, areas near and south of the Mass Pike looks to change from rain to snow. The exception to all of this looks to be the Connecticut River Valley/I-91 corridor where the precipitation could stay as all rain all night long.
Snow then potentially continues through the day on Thursday across much of the area. The exception once again could be the Connecticut River Valley/I-91 corridor where rain or a rain-snow mix may persist through Thursday.
In addition to the rain and snow, there is also the potential for quite a bit of wind to occur with this storm. These windy conditions combined with the wet and heavy snow could lead to issues with downed trees and power lines.
The area that looks to have the highest chance of a heavy pasty amount of snow looks to be from about the north side of Worcester northward through the northern Worcester Hills and also the Berkshires. Other areas of Central Mass may end up with a light to moderate amount of wet snow. The Connecticut River Valley could end up with very little, if any snow.
This is DEFINITELY a storm that is going to have to be watched very closely in the coming days.
Temperatures on Wednesday will be between 35 and 40 Degrees. Temperatures on Wednesday night looks to fall back to near 30 Degrees. Temperatures on Thursday look to remain in the 30s.