Very Cold Temperatures Expected This Afternoon Through Tonight Across Western & Central Mass

For This Afternoon: An Arctic air mass is in place across the region. Even though skies this afternoon will be sunny to at times partly sunny, temperatures will struggle to make it much past 10 Degrees. Tonight: Arctic high pressure will move right over New England early tonight and then begins to move to the east late tonight. This all means that skies this evening will be clear and this will lead to temperatures falling to near Zero by midnight. After midnight, however, some increase in high clouds could cause temperatures to steady off between Zero and 5 above zero. Wednesday: That high pressure system will continue moving to the east and this will set up a southwesterly wind flow over our area. This means that Wednesday will be significantly milder than today with high temperatures near 35 Degrees. Also, skies on Wednesday will be partly sunny. Thursday: A mixture of sunshine and clouds is expected for Thursday with high temperatures near 40 Degrees. Friday: An area of low pressure is expected to take shape off of the North Carolina coast on Thursday night and then pass well east of the Cape on Friday. This type of track is such that it’ll be a miss for Western and Central Mass in terms of any snow. At this point, Friday is expected to feature a mixture of sunshine and clouds with high temperatures near 30 Degrees. Saturday Through Monday: An area of high pressure will control our weather on Saturday with lots of sunshine expected. One thing that offshore storm system will do is pull down some more Arctic air into our area. Because of this, high temperatures on Saturday will be between 15 and 20 Degrees. Beyond this, I am keeping a very close eye on another storm system that’ll move offshore of the southeastern United States on Sunday. The track of this storm system is going to be crucial in determining whether Western and Central Mass sees accumulating snow or not on Sunday night and Monday. As expected, the weather forecast guidance is of no help at this time range because they all have differing tracks and impacts for our area. These differences range from a complete miss to the east to a full-blown snowstorm with near blizzard conditions on Sunday night and especially on Monday. It should be noted that the forecast weather pattern for Sunday and Monday when comparing it to historical snowstorms reveal that this is certainly a storm to really watch closely. For now, I think that Sunday will be partly sunny with high temperatures near 25 Degrees. Sunday night will probably see an increase in clouds with perhaps some snow moving in after midnight. Low temperatures Sunday night will be near 15 Degrees. Monday may see at least some snow. How much accumulates is still to be determined, but it is a storm system to really watch closely. High temperatures Monday will be near 30 Degrees.