Rain To Ice & Then Snow Is Expected From Late Thursday Afternoon Until Friday Evening

For Tonight: A clear to partly cloudy night is expected as an area of high pressure briefly builds over the region. Low temperatures will be near 30 Degrees. Winds will be West at 10 to 20 mph. Thursday: Skies will start out partly sunny, but skies will become cloudy by midday or so. It is then expected that an area of low pressure will track near the south coast of New England during Thursday night. Precipitation out ahead of this storm system will overspread the entire region from southwest to northeast during the late afternoon hours of Thursday. The big question is going to be what form will the precipitation be in during late Thursday afternoon. At this point, I think that precipitation should be in the form of rain along the I-91 corridor, as well as across areas near and south of Route 9, including the Worcester Metro as well as all of the Mass Pike. Further north across Central Mass, it appears that we could see a rain-sleet mixture across the I-190 corridor, as well as across the Worcester Hills west of I-190. Areas near and north of Route 2 looks to have precipitation in the form of snow and sleet during late Thursday afternoon making for slippery travel conditions for the Thursday afternoon and evening commute. The Berkshires are likely to see snow and sleet during late Thursday afternoon. Turning to Thursday Night: The forecast for Thursday night hinges heavily on whether cold air bleeds into the region or whether that cold air injection waits until Friday. This is important because if the cold air does filter into the region during Thursday night, we could see a real big mess of wintry mixed precipitation across a large part of Western and Central Mass. If this doesn’t occur, then any wintry mixed precipitation would be limited to the Berkshires and the northern Worcester Hills. Weather forecast guidance has trended a little colder with temperatures during Thursday night as compared to yesterday’s forecasts. These trends will need to be watched as any colder trends would mean widespread snow and sleet across the entire area on Thursday night. For now, this is what I’m thinking: Near & South Of The Mass Pike, As Well As Across The Lower Pioneer Valley Of Western Mass: Precipitation should be in the form of mostly all rain throughout Thursday evening that will mix with sleet and snow around midnight before ending shortly after midnight. No snow accumulations are expected Thursday night. Areas North Of The Mass Pike, But South Of Route 62, Including The Worcester Metro: Rain should change to a mix of snow and sleet early in the evening with snow mixed with sleet continuing through midnight. All precipitation should come to an end shortly after midnight. Snow amounts of 1 to 2 inches are possible during Thursday evening. Areas Near & North Of Route 62, Including The Entire Route 2 Corridor: Sleet & snow will change to all snow early in the evening with the snow continuing through midnight. The snow will come to an end shortly after midnight Thursday night. Snow amounts of 2 to 3 inches look possible during Thursday evening. For Friday: As that low pressure system moves away during Friday, it is expected that some sort of trough of low pressure will hang back across the region. This will lead to a round of mainly light snow to occur during the day on Friday. It appears that snow will move back into the area by or just before mid-morning Friday and then continue into the afternoon and maybe even the early evening hours. Snow then comes to an end during the early evening hours of Friday. Additional snow amounts during the day on Friday look to be around 1 to 2 inches or so across the entire area. Saturday & Sunday: An area of high pressure will control the weather throughout Saturday into part of Sunday. Saturday looks like it’ll feature a mixture of sun and clouds with high temperatures near 35 Degrees. Sunday looks like it’ll start out partly sunny with skies becoming cloudy during the afternoon. High temperatures near 40 Degrees. Another Possible Winter Storm To Watch For Sunday Night Into Monday: Another low pressure system is expected to track near or right over Southern New England during Sunday night and Monday morning. It’s still way too early to talk about the exact outline of how this storm will unfold for our area. The reasons why are that there are questions as to how much cold air may be around and also the exact track of this storm system. Weather forecast guidance vary on how they track this storm with some guidance showing a storm that tracks right over or just north of the area, which would mean an icy mix to rain scenario. Other weather forecast guidance point to a track that takes this storm right over or just east of the Cape, which would mean a mostly all snow scenario. It actually wouldn’t surprise me if this storm is slightly colder than the one that’s coming up. This means that potentially that mostly all snow could occur across areas near and north of the Mass Pike while areas south of the Mass Pike could end up with a messy mixture of snow, sleet and rain. The timing of this storm is for the precipitation to begin around sunset on Sunday and then continue through all of Sunday night and much of Monday morning before ending just before midday on Monday. I want to emphasize that we are still several days away from this storm and lots of details need to be ironed out with this storm. This means that lots of changes to the forecast is quite likely. And Yet Another Storm To Watch For Next Wednesday Into Next Thursday: Our consulting clients are receiving updates and guidance on a third winter storm threat for the middle part of next week. If you are a town official, property management company owner or anyone that needs specific and very localized weather guidance and weather updates, contact me at contact@route20weather.com for more information & prices to become a consulting client of mine.