Yet Another Storm To Watch From Monday Afternoon To Tuesday Morning Across Western & Central Mass

For This Afternoon: Sunshine is expected for this afternoon with temperatures between 20 and 25 Degrees. Tonight & Sunday: An area of high pressure will build into the area tonight and remain in control during the day on Sunday. This means that tonight will be clear with low temperatures between Zero and 5 Degrees. Sunday will be a sunny day with high temperatures near 25 Degrees. Sunday Night: That high pressure system will push to the east during Sunday night. Skies will start out partly cloudy Sunday evening, but will become cloudy after midnight Sunday night. Low temperatures Sunday night will be near 20 Degrees. Monday Through Tuesday: It looks like there’s yet another storm to keep an eye on from Monday afternoon to Tuesday morning (just as I thought I would get a little break from tracking and forecasting storms). An area of low pressure is forecast to form along the North and South Carolina coasts on Monday and then head northeastward passing near or just east of the Cape late Monday night and Tuesday morning. At the same time this is occurring, a surface trough of low pressure is expected to extend northward from this storm system into Southern New England. How this storm system affects Western and Central Mass will depend on the track of the coastal storm system and also how much that storm system can strengthen. On one hand, a relatively weak storm system that passes east of the Cape would lead to snow to begin with across all of Western and Central Mass Monday afternoon. That snow changes to freezing rain and then rain across most of the area Monday night with rain continuing into Tuesday morning. The exception would be across the Berkshires and along and north of Route 2 where precipitation would stay as all snow. On the other hand, a storm system that’s able to strengthen quickly would lead to a much different outcome. In this scenario, precipitation would begin as all rain Monday afternoon and evening across most of Western and Central Mass with snow occurring in the Berkshires and the far northern Worcester Hills. The rain would change to snow everywhere across Western and Central Mass by about midnight Monday night and it would snow right through the day on Tuesday. Here Are My Thoughts: I think that it'll be tough, if not impossible for the atmosphere to produce all snow this time around. Temperatures going into Monday afternoon and Monday night will be in the mid to upper 30s and we would need a fairly potent storm system to produce its own cold air. I think that areas outside of the Berkshires and south of Route 2 will probably see snow to begin with during Monday afternoon that changes to rain on Monday evening and remains as rain the rest of Monday night. Rain may end as a little bit of snow on Tuesday morning as that storm system moves away. Snowfall amounts of perhaps 1 to 2 inches seems possible Monday afternoon before it changes to rain Monday evening. Across the Berkshires and along and north of Route 2, snow will develop during Monday afternoon and remain as snow through Monday evening. Some freezing rain may mix in with the snow after midnight Monday night with the mixed precipitation changing back to snow before ending Tuesday morning. Snowfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches are possible across the Berkshires and along and north of Route 2. With all of that said, I’ll be watching this storm closely and will have updates for you, especially if this storm system turns more snowy than what I'm forecasting now. High temperatures Monday will be between 35 and 40 Degrees. Temperatures on Monday night will range from near 30 Degrees in the Berkshires and along and north of Route 2 to the mid and upper 30s across the rest of Western and Central Mass. High temperatures Tuesday will be near 40 Degrees. Wednesday Through Friday: A partly sunny day is expected on Wednesday with high temperatures near 40 Degrees. Generally partly sunny skies are expected on Thursday, however, there may be some late afternoon and evening scattered rain and snow showers as a frontal boundary moves through. High temperatures Thursday will be between 40 and 45 Degrees. A sunny to partly sunny day is expected on Friday with high temperatures near 40 Degrees.