For The Rest Of This Afternoon: Light rain is expected to continue this afternoon across the entire area. Temperatures this afternoon will be around 45 Degrees.
Rain Changing To Freezing Rain & Then Sleet Will Make For An Icy Mess On Friday Across Western & Central Mass: The combination of temperatures falling into the 20s and a change from rain to freezing rain and then to sleet is going to make for an absolute icy mess across the entire area on Friday. This is going to lead to very hazardous travel conditions throughout the day Friday, including during both the morning and afternoon/evening commute.
Rain is expected to continue this evening. A change from rain to freezing rain and then to sleet is expected to occur first across the Berkshires, the upper Pioneer Valley of Western Mass and across the northern Worcester Hills by midnight tonight. This change from rain to freezing rain and sleet will then reach the area from the lower Pioneer Valley of Western Mass to about metro Worcester by about 4 to 5 am Friday morning. By about 7 am or so Friday morning, freezing rain and sleet is expected to be occurring across all of Western and Central Mass.
The big question is how long freezing rain will last at any one location before it changes to sleet. My thinking at this point is that we’ll probably see freezing rain last for about 2 to 3 hours at most areas before it changes to sleet. Ice accumulations of between one tenth of an inch and one quarter of an inch is expected.
Sleet will become the main precipitation type from mid to late morning Friday right through all of Friday afternoon. The sleet intensity will be heavy at times. Sleet accumulations of 1 to 2 inches look likely across the entire area.
Another question is whether the sleet will change to snow before it ends early Friday evening. At this point, it appears that a brief changeover to snow with accumulations of around one inch or so seems possible across the Berkshires, the upper Pioneer Valley of Western Mass and the northernmost Worcester Hills. Across the rest of the region, it appears that the precipitation will end as sleet early Friday evening.
The other big concern on Friday is for everything freezing up solid as temperatures fall throughout the day on Friday. Temperatures are expected to fall into the 20s first across the Berkshires, the upper Pioneer Valley of Western Mass and the northern Worcester Hills by about 4 to 5 am Friday morning. These temperatures falling into the 20s will reach the Mass Pike by about 8 to 9 am Friday morning and it’ll be in the 20s everywhere across Western and Central Mass by about 10-11 am Friday morning.
This means that very hazardous travel conditions with roads icing up across the entire area during Friday morning and remaining very icy through Friday afternoon and into Friday night.
Also, temperatures will fall further into the teens on Friday night and remain well below freezing all weekend long. This means that everything that falls today, tonight and Friday will freeze solid and remain a frozen block through this weekend.
You can refer to the forecast map attached for more details on how this storm will affect your area.
This Weekend Through Early Next Week: Saturday is expected to be sunny with high temperatures between 20 and 25 Degrees.
Sunday looks partly sunny with high temperatures between 25 and 30 Degrees.
Looking towards the first half of next week, no weather problems are expected across the region.
Monday is expected to be partly sunny with high temperatures near 35 Degrees.
Tuesday will be partly sunny with high temperatures near 35 Degrees.
Wednesday looks partly sunny with high temperatures near 35 Degrees.