For The Rest Of This Afternoon: More clouds than sunshine can be expected throughout the rest of this afternoon. Temperatures will be between 40 and 45 Degrees. Winds will be Northwest at 10 to 20 mph.
Tonight: A weak high pressure system will build into the area leading to partly cloudy skies throughout tonight. Low temperatures will be near 30 Degrees. Winds will be Northwest at 5 to 10 mph.
Monday: A partly sunny day is expected on Monday with high temperatures near 45 Degrees. Winds will be West at 5 to 10 mph.
Very Significant Amounts Of Snow Are Expected On Tuesday: An area of low pressure is expected to develop near the Mid-Atlantic coast late Monday night. That low pressure system is then expected to rapidly strengthen as it tracks to the south and southeast of Southern New England during the day on Tuesday.
Overall there are no major changes to the forecast except for increasing snow totals across the entire area. Many areas of Central Mass will end up with a solid foot of snow with this upcoming storm. The other change to the forecast is to increase the winds expected for this storm since the low pressure system will rapidly strengthen leading to 30-40 mph wind gusts during the day on Tuesday. These gusty winds will likely lead to areas of blowing snow causing further reduced visibilities across the area.
Here Are My Latest Thoughts As Of Early Sunday Afternoon: Snow will overspread the entire area between about 4 am and 6 am Tuesday morning.
The snow is then expected to become heavy to very heavy in intensity by about 8-9 am Tuesday morning. Snowfall rates of 2 to 3 inches per hour with isolated 4 inch per hour snow rates can be expected across all of Western and Central Mass between about 8-9 am Tuesday morning and about 1-2 pm Tuesday afternoon.
The snow is then anticipated to lighten up in intensity by mid-afternoon Tuesday with light to occasionally moderate snow expected through late Tuesday afternoon.
The snow will come to an end by about early Tuesday evening.
Our latest snowfall forecast map for this storm is attached to this post.
Expected Storm Impacts: Travel conditions throughout Tuesday morning into the first part of Tuesday afternoon is expected to be extremely difficult across the entire area due to the extremely heavy snowfall rates. In fact, some roads may be impassable due to snowplow crews not being able to keep up with the very heavy snowfall rates.
In addition to this, wind gusts of 30-40 mph out of a north to northeast direction will cause areas of blowing snow and whiteout conditions throughout the day on Tuesday.
Road conditions will slowly improve during the second half of Tuesday afternoon as the snow lightens up in intensity and road crews are able to catch up with snow plowing.
I am still strongly recommending that all non-essential businesses should close on Tuesday and that all non-essential functions should be canceled on Tuesday. In addition, I strongly recommend that all schools across the entire area should be canceled on Tuesday.
Temperatures during Tuesday are expected to remain steady around 30 Degrees throughout much of the day. Temperatures may gradually fall into the upper 20s by late afternoon.
Winds during Tuesday will be North to Northeast at 15 to 20 mph with gusts to 30 to 40 mph.
I continue to closely monitor the progress of Tuesday’s snowstorm and I will most definitely have many more updates for you as needed.