Freezing Rain With Icy Conditions Are Expected Tonight Across Western & Central Mass (Issued: 3:10 pm Sunday Afternoon 12/28/2025)

An area of low pressure is expected to track across the Great Lakes region tonight and then push across southern Canada during Monday. Milder air aloft will move over a sub-freezing surface leading to several hours of freezing rain across the entire area during tonight. Temperatures are then expected to rise to above freezing by Monday leading to any freezing rain to change to rain.

Freezing rain is expected to begin across Western Mass by about 8 pm this evening and then begin across Central Mass by about 9 pm or so this evening. Once the freezing rain begins, it is expected to last throughout the rest of tonight. This freezing rain is likely to produce some very icy conditions across the entire area, especially on untreated surfaces. My recommendation to you is to avoid travel during tonight, if you can as things will very likely be very slippery. If you have to travel tonight, I urge you to use extreme caution.

I do think that the cold air near the ground will be very stubborn and tough to scour out. The reason for this is that we have a fresh snow cover on the ground and when this occurs this time of year, the freezing rain usually hangs on much longer than usual. Because of this, I don’t think that we’ll flip to just rain until sometime on Monday morning.

In terms of ice amounts tonight, I do think that we’ll see somewhere between one tenth of an inch (0.10”) and one quarter of an inch (0.25”) of ice tonight. While this is not enough ice to bring down trees or power lines, it is more than enough to produce some very icy conditions & some very slippery roads.

The freezing rain will change to rain during Monday morning from south to north across the region. Areas near and south of the Mass Pike look to change from freezing rain to rain as early as just before sunrise Monday morning while areas in the northern Worcester Hills and parts of the upper Pioneer Valley may not change from freezing rain to rain until mid or late morning on Monday. Periods of rain is then expected during Monday afternoon across the entire area as temperatures will be in the 40s.

Once that storm moves towards Atlantic Canada on Monday night and Tuesday, it’ll pull down some cold air on some gusty west and northwest winds. Because of this, any standing water or slush will quickly become a solid glacier by Monday evening as temperatures fall quickly into the 20s. This means that any slush that is not removed from parking lots or driveways will be a solid frozen mess by Monday evening. Additionally, any untreated surfaces will likely become quite slick during Monday evening and because of this, black ice will be a threat throughout Monday night.

Low temperatures on Monday night will be near 15 Degrees. High temperatures Tuesday will be between 25 and 30 Degrees. Winds on Monday night will be West at 20 to 30 mph with gusts to 45 mph. Winds on Tuesday will be West at 20 to 30 mph with gusts to 45 mph.