Heavy Rain Late Tonight & Saturday Morning Across Western & Central Mass

Heavy Rain Late Tonight & Saturday Morning: A robust low pressure system is expected to head into Quebec, Canada later tonight and Saturday. This will pull a strong cold front across our area during Saturday morning. Rain is expected to overspread Western and Central Mass around midnight tonight and continue right through all of Saturday morning. A period of heavy rain with the possibility of a thunderstorm or two is expected between about 4 am and 10 am Saturday morning. The exception to this will be across the northern Worcester Hills, the Berkshires and across areas north of Route 2. These areas are likely to begin as snow around midnight tonight with the snow for several hours late tonight before changing to rain around sunrise Saturday morning. Rain, heavy at times, is then expected across these areas throughout Saturday morning. Snowfall amounts late tonight will range from 1 to 3 inches across the northern Worcester Hills and the hilltowns of the upper Pioneer Valley to 3 to 6 inches of snow accumulation across the Berkshires. Rain is expected to come to an end during the first half of Saturday afternoon. Total rainfall amounts from late tonight through Saturday morning are expected to range between 1 and 2 inches across all of Western and Central Mass. Maybe A Quick Burst Of Snow Saturday Evening: One last piece of energy with the storm system may bring a quick burst of snow to the entire area between 7 pm and 2 am Saturday night. Any snow accumulations on Saturday evening should amount to a light coating across most of the area. The exception may be across the Worcester Hills where a quick inch or so of snow accumulation is possible. Weather Outlook For Next Week & The Following Week: As has been expected since late December, it looks like Western and Central Mass will head towards a colder and potentially snowier weather pattern starting next week and continuing through the end of this month and through the first week of February. High temperatures next week will average between 30 and 35 Degrees every day with low temperatures next week averaging between 18 and 23 Degrees every night. These types of temperatures are likely to last through the following week (week of January 25). As for snow chances – A weather disturbance passing across the region may bring light snow to the area late Tuesday night and Wednesday morning with maybe an inch or two of snow accumulation possible. Beyond this, an area of low pressure could form near Nantucket next Friday leading to the potential for accumulating snow on Thursday night and next Friday morning. This should be a quick moving storm system, so a heavy snowfall looks unlikely and more than likely would end up being a 2 to 4 inch or 3 to 6 inch snowfall. Looking even further ahead, we might have to watch around January 25 or 26 for a coastal storm that could bring the area accumulating snow and then again during the weekend of January 30-31 for another chance for accumulating snow. Bottom line is that above average amounts of snowfall look quite possible across the entire area for the next 3 to 4 weeks. How much above average remains to be seen and depends on the exact track and dynamics of each of the storms we are watching. I will mention that long range guidance is forecasting a total of between 25 and 35 inches of snow total between now and February 28 across the entire area. If this ends up true, then it would be about 10 to 15 inches above average for snowfall.