Icy Conditions Late Friday Night Into Saturday Morning Across Parts Of Western & Central Mass

For This Afternoon: Generally cloudy skies are expected this afternoon with temperatures remaining in the upper 30s to low 40s. Tonight: An area of high pressure will build over New England tonight. This means that skies will become partly cloudy this evening and clear skies are expected after midnight tonight. Low temperatures tonight will be near 25 Degrees. New Year’s Day: High pressure will continue to control the weather throughout Friday with lots of sunshine expected across Western and Central Mass. High temperatures on New Year’s Day will be between 37 and 41 Degrees. Friday Night Through Saturday: One area of low pressure is expected to move from the Ohio Valley to the eastern Great Lakes on Friday night. Meanwhile, a second low pressure system is expected to form near the south coast of New Enland and head for Nova Scotia on Saturday. The combination of these two storms and some cold air remaining in place across Western and Central Mass will lead to a wide variety of wintry precipitation to overspread the area between 9 pm and midnight on Friday evening and then continue through the rest of the night on Friday night. Precipitation is then expected to gradually change to rain during Saturday morning. Here Are More Details Of What I Expect: For Areas Along & North Of Route 2, Including Fitchburg, Gardner & Orange: Snow will begin around midnight Friday night and will mix with sleet at times after midnight Friday night. A change to freezing rain is then expected by dawn Saturday morning with the freezing rain changing to all rain by late Saturday morning. Rain is then expected to continue into Saturday afternoon before ending later Saturday afternoon. Snow and sleet accumulations of 2 to 3 inches are expected across areas along and north of Route 2. In addition, ice accumulations of up to one quarter of an inch is possible. Expect very hazardous travel conditions late Friday night and Saturday morning due to the mixture of wet snow, sleet and freezing rain. Road conditions should gradually improve during Saturday afternoon. For Areas Along & North Of The Mass Pike, Including Worcester: Snow is expected to begin between 10 pm and midnight Friday evening with the snow changing to freezing rain well after midnight Friday night. The freezing rain is expected for several hours very late Friday night into early Saturday morning before changing to rain by 7 am Saturday morning. Rain is then expected throughout the day Saturday before coming to an end later Saturday afternoon. Snow accumulations of around one inch can be expected with ice accumulations of up to one tenth of an inch possible. Hazardous travel conditions are expected along and north of the Mass Pike during Friday night into early Saturday morning. Road conditions will improve during the day on Saturday. For Areas South Of The Mass Pike, Including Springfield: A sloppy mixture of snow, sleet and freezing rain is expected to begin between 9 pm and 11 pm Friday evening. The mixture of snow, sleet and freezing rain is then expected to continue for several hours after midnight Friday night with the icy precipitation changing to rain by 3 to 4 am Saturday morning. Rain is expected throughout the day on Saturday with the rain coming to an end by late Saturday afternoon. A very light glaze of ice is expected on Friday night leading to hazardous travel conditions across the area. Improving travel conditions due to above freezing temperatures are expected on Saturday. Snow Is Possible From Late Sunday Afternoon To Midday Monday: I am very closely watching the potential for a coastal storm that could bring accumulating snow to Western and Central Mass beginning later Sunday afternoon and continuing through Sunday night and Monday morning before ending around midday Monday. The uncertainty as to the exact track of this storm remains very high and it’ll probably take another couple of days to iron out a better idea of where exactly this storm may track. At this point, the range in possible scenarios are from a storm that tracks across the Cape and eastern Mass which would lead to several inches of snow across Western Mass and a few inches of snow followed by the snow mixing with rain across Central Mass TO a storm tracking near the Cape which would mean a good sized snowstorm across Central Mass and a few inches of snow across Western Mass TO a storm system that tracks well offshore which would mean a light snowfall of a couple of inches across the entire area. At this point, I think that it is quite likely that it will snow from late Sunday afternoon through Sunday night and Monday morning before ending around midday Monday. I still think that anywhere from at least a couple of inches to a few inches of snow seems most possible, but this will likely change in the next couple of days. I will continue to have frequent updates on this potential storm in the coming days, so keep checking back!