Weather

Multiple Chances for Freezing Rain, Wintry Mix This Weekend

We’re awaiting the arrival of slightly messy storm tonight.

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If you’re nursing a slight headache on this 1st day of 2021, you’ll be glad to know that the weather is nice and quiet…albeit a bit bright with all the sun.

We’re awaiting the arrival of slightly messy storm tonight. Snow and a light mix of sleet and rain will break out just before midnight before it quickly turns to all rain inside I-495 in the wee hours of Saturday morning. Cold will be a little more tenacious in Central Mass and Southern NH, where we may still be icing in places like Worcester, Gardner, Fitchburg and Greater Nashua. By mid-morning, the transition to all rain will be complete. We’ll continue as light showers only until noon, as this fast-moving storm finds the exit in the afternoon.

While our highs make it to the 40s, we will sink to freezing by morning on Sunday as the colder air flops back down after the storm passes. This is still marginal cold for snow, however, which makes for another hand-wringing forecast as the next storm arrives Sunday afternoon/night.

This storm has bigger upside potential on snowfall, despite the borderline cold. It appears a compact coastal storm (dang near a mini-nor’easter) will move off the Islands and swing back snow and rain across Southern New England. Guidance has been all over the place in terms of heaviest accumulations, but all of it seems to favor a plowable snow farther away from the coast. That said, with enough energy to expend, we could get some smaller accumulation near the coast as the storm pulls away and the colder air sweeps in. We’re still treading lightly on that proposition, given the lessons learned in early December (recall the cold came too late).

In any event, this one-two punch is all we see for the next several days. Temps will remain near or above average as the arctic air remains out of sight.

Happy 2021!

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