Much Colder Temperatures Expected Tonight & Mon Across Western & Central Mass; Snow Is Possible Fri

For The Rest Of Today: Plenty of clouds are expected throughout the rest of today. In addition, there may be a few passing showers around at times, especially during the mid and late afternoon hours. Temperatures the rest of today will be between 45 and 50 Degrees. Tonight: A cold front will push across the area this evening. This front will usher in some much colder air across Western and Central Mass. Skies tonight will be generally mostly cloudy. Low temperatures tonight will be between 20 and 25 Degrees. Northwest winds will gust up to 30 mph and this will lead to wind chill temperatures to be between 10 and 15 Degrees by late tonight and early Monday morning. Monday: There are some pretty significant changes to the weather forecast for Monday as an area of low pressure is expected to track just barely offshore of the Southern New England coast. It appears that based on the latest weather forecast guidance that this storm system will track much closer to our area than what was previously thought. How close the snow shield gets to the area is still in some uncertainty as I have concerns that we may not be done with the northward shifts in the storm track. If that indeed occurs (additional northward tracks in the storm track), then we could be looking at some accumulating snow across areas near and south of the Mass Pike during the day on Monday. I’m not forecasting this to occur at this time, but it is something that needs to be watched. For now, it looks like Monday will be cloudy throughout the day and it will be cold. In addition, there may be some isolated snow flurries occurring during the afternoon on Monday across areas east of I-84. It appears that the accumulating snow with this storm system will be confined to extreme southeastern Connecticut, far southern Rhode Island and the Cape where a few inches of snow accumulation is possible on Monday. High temperatures Monday will be near 30 Degrees. I will be watching the data for Monday’s system extremely closely and will have updates as needed. Monday Night & Tuesday: That storm system will move away to the east and northeast and an area of high pressure is expected to build into the area for Monday night and Tuesday. Skies will be clear to partly cloudy on Monday night with low temperatures between 10 and 15 Degrees. Tuesday is expected to be a sunny day with high temperatures near 35 Degrees. Wednesday: A weak fast moving wave of low pressure will cross southern New England during the day on Wednesday. This means that skies on Wednesday will be cloudy and there will be a period of showers from late morning through the afternoon hours. High temperatures on Wednesday will be near 45 Degrees. Thursday: It looks like we will be in-between weather systems on Thursday. Because of this, it looks like there will be a mixture of sunshine and clouds on Thursday with high temperatures between 35 and 40 Degrees. Friday: I continue to watch a storm system that has the potential to bring winter weather impacts to the entire area throughout the day on Friday. An area of low pressure is expected to take shape over the lower Ohio Valley and the Tennessee Valley on Thursday. It looks likely that this storm system will head northeastward and pass somewhere near the coast of Southern New England on Friday. The exact track of this storm system still needs to be ironed out as it will be crucial in determining whether this will be a snowstorm, another mixed bag of precipitation or a rain storm. Unfortunately, it’s still way too early to determine what type of a track this storm may take. With that said, there seems to be a gradual growing consensus among the weather forecast guidance that this storm could be more snow than anything else. Given the amount of moisture that will be available and the fact that this will be a strengthening low pressure system, if this storm stays as all snow, it’ll be more than enough to plow across all of Western and Central Mass. So, for now, I think that snow will overspread all of Western and Central Mass probably between 3 and 5 am or so Friday morning. The snow is then expected to continue through much of the day Friday before ending during the late afternoon hours. Given the large uncertainty in the forecast track of the low pressure system, I’m going to put a change to a mixture of snow, sleet and freezing rain for a while around the late morning and early afternoon hours for areas near and south of the Mass Pike. Again, I think that enough snow to shovel and plow is definitely a strong possibility. I am watching this storm closely and will have more updates as needed. Finally, it still looks like we will have a stretch of quite cold weather and potentially abnormally cold weather beginning next week (January 10) and continuing into the week of January 17. Be ready for several consecutive days of below average temperatures.