Snow Chance Saturday Night, then Arctic Cold

The coldest weather in at least 3 years, if not 9 years will begin to invade New England early next week.  This will be preceded by a few inches of snow Saturday into Saturday night.  There looks to be multiple chances to get to 0 or below.  First let's start with Friday's weather and move forward.

EURO Forecast Max Temps today  (image credit Weatherbell)

A mainly sunny day with temperatures in the low 30's for much of Southern New England.  Colder in the north country where a deep snowpack will help keep temperatures down.  Winds will be blustery this morning, especially those closest to the coast but they will relax this afternoon .  Clouds will increase overnight and the temperature will drop into the low 20's/upper teens.  Then low pressure will form off the Maryland/Delaware coast and track south of New England.

Friday Morning Surface chart, storm energy and track highlighted

There is moderate agreement from computer guidance on this system but the total amounts are still being worked out.  There is a 10 percent chance of at least 4 inches of snow for much of Southern New England

HPC Day 2 Snowfall probabilities

There is a 40 percent chance of 4 inches for Bristol and Plymouth Counties in MA as well as much of RI.  I can say it appears that the classic "bombing" of the storm system will not occur until it is too far in the Atlantic.  So here is my guess at what happens

12/29 Snowfall Forecast

I'll monitor today's trends to see if I need to pull back on the amounts or expand the 4-7.  Plows will be needed in SE MA and RI but this may extend into CT.  The Cape is a bit of a leap of faith with 2-4 that may also need to be adjusted.  Regardless, the snow starts to fly around noon time for most and will be pulling away Sunday morning.  If the storm bombs sooner, expect a long lasting storm.

Here is the citygram for Worcester over the next 8 days

GFS forecast

And the EURO citygram

Cold is coming

This is great news for people who enjoy the ice as lakes and ponds will be freezing up within the week.  Just for fun here is Saturday January 5th at 7 am, from the EURO

Below zero to the MA/RI/CT border

This winter is shaping up to be like 2003/04.  That was the winter in which the Patriots played a playoff game when the temp was 4 degrees.  That was also the winter school was called off when low temperatures dipped to -10 degrees.  Something like that is possible later in January.  More later have a good day.