There Is A Increasing Chance For A Major Winter Storm For Sunday Through Monday Across Western & Central Mass (Issued: Wednesday Afternoon 1/21/2026)

For Tonight: A frontal system is expected to push through the area during tonight. This frontal system will introduce some moisture, forcing and a temporary shift in the air mass leading to the likelihood of steady light snow to occur for a few hours tonight.

Some steady light snow looks to overspread the region between about 9 pm and midnight. This light snow then looks to continue through the after midnight hours of tonight before it comes to an end by about sunrise Thursday morning.

Snow amounts tonight look to average around one inch or so across the entire area.

Low temperatures will be around 25 Degrees. Winds will be Southwest at 10 to 20 mph.

Thursday: Thursday is likely to be the mildest day for quite a while as once that Arctic air moves into our area it’ll hang around for quite a while.

Skies throughout the day on Thursday will be partly sunny with high temperatures around 40 Degrees. Winds will be West to Southwest at 15 to 20 mph with gusts to 30 mph.

Friday Through Saturday: An Arctic cold front is expected to push through the region during Friday afternoon and Friday evening. It appears that this front will be a “dry front” and because of this, little or no snow shower activity is expected with its passage. What this front will do is usher in the coldest air seen so far this season for this weekend.

Friday looks to feature partly sunny skies during the morning and varying amounts of clouds during the afternoon. High temperatures will be around 30 Degrees. Winds will be West at 15 to 20 mph with gusts to 30 mph.

A significant Arctic outbreak will impact all of Western and Central Mass beginning on Friday night and lasting through all of this weekend. This will lead to not only the coldest temperatures thus far this winter, but also some of the coldest temperatures in the last 2-3 years or so.

Friday night looks clear to partly cloudy with low temperatures between 5 below zero and 10 below zero. Winds will be West to Northwest at 15 to 20 mph with gusts to 30 mph. Wind chill temperatures on Friday night will be between 20 and 30 below zero.

Saturday looks sunny and very cold with high temperatures between 5 and 10 Degrees. Wind chill temperatures on Saturday will be in the 15 to 25 below zero range in the morning and around 10 below zero in the afternoon.

Saturday night looks clear with low temperatures between 5 below zero and 10 below zero.

A Major Winter Storm Is Looking Increasingly More Possible For Sunday Through Monday: As I mentioned in my previous post, it appears that we may be looking at a big snowstorm from Sunday through Sunday night and Monday.

An area of low pressure system is expected to track from the North Carolina coast on Sunday morning to near the south coast of New England by Sunday night. This low pressure system is then forecast to head northeastward towards the area south of Atlantic Canada by late Monday. The track of this storm system is much closer to our area than what was previously thought. The reason for this seems to have to do with the expectation of the Arctic high pressure system shifting to the northeast towards Quebec province just as this storm system approaches. This leads to this storm to track much closer to our area rather than being suppressed to the south.

All of the weather forecast guidance, including the GFS, Canadian and European models now seem to agree that this could be a big winter storm for all of Western and Central Mass. These models are now forecasting over a foot of snow accumulation, which looks to be very light, fluffy and powdery due to the Arctic air mass that’ll be over us.

Here Are My Thoughts: It goes without saying that I’m starting to think that we could see quite a significant winter storm here across Western and Central Mass during Sunday, Sunday night and Monday. That being said, I’m not yet buying into the idea of well over a foot of snow to accumulate with this storm. I’d like to see the data continue to agree with the idea of a big snowstorm before I go that route.

As of right now, I think that we’ll see snow overspread all of Western and Central Mass by or just before midday Sunday. The snow is then expected to continue through all of Sunday afternoon, all of Sunday night and possibly all day Monday. There could be a period where the snow is moderate to heavy in intensity from Sunday afternoon through Sunday night.

The snow may not end across the entire area until sometime later Monday afternoon.

I want to emphasize that the ceiling in terms of snowfall amounts for this storm is very high. The reason why is because the Arctic air mass will be able to produce a very light, fluffy and powdery snow that has no problems at all adding up quickly.

For now though, my thinking is for widespread snow totals of 8 to 12 inches across all of Western and Central Mass. That being said, these forecast snow totals may need be increased in future forecasts & my recommendation to you is to plan for a significant snowstorm that impacts your plans on Sunday, Sunday night and Monday.

Additionally, this is going to be a very cold storm. Temperatures on Sunday will only be between 10 and 15 Degrees. Temperatures on Sunday night will be between 5 and 10 Degrees and temperatures on Monday will rise to only 15 to 20 Degrees.

Finally, it appears that the winds shouldn’t be that strong with this storm & because of this, blizzard conditions ARE NOT expected. In fact, any blowing and drifting snow should be fairly minimal.

Many more updates on this winter storm will be posted in the coming days. So, stay tuned for the latest!! I'M ASKING FOR YOUR HELP IN SUPPORTING COSTS TO OPERATE ROUTE 20 WEATHER: First, I’d like to thank everyone once again for your continued support. If it were not for you, I would not be able to do a job that I love so very much – forecasting the weather for Western and Central Mass.

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