We have a First Alert declared for New England as bitter cold wind chills take over Thursday night into Friday. Lows in the evening dip to near zero far north, and in the teens and 20s south.
With a gusty northwest wind between 25 and 35 mph, our wind chills fall to -10 to -30 degrees. This means, in higher elevations especially, that frostbite can set in on exposed skin in 30 minutes or less.
There won't be much improvement for Friday afternoon as highs reach the teens and 20s, but wind chills will remain 0 to -20 degrees with the strong northwest wind. Most of the day will be sunny, but more clouds and snow showers develop in the mountains and across coastal Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts as a shortwave spins in from the northeast.
Friday afternoon through evening we're looking at scattered coatings to an inch of snow around eastern Massachusetts, 1-3 inches in coastal Maine and in the mountains, and 3 inches or more across outer Cape Cod. The cold air will create higher and fluffier snow ratios. So instead of 10:1 it may be more like 15:1.
Saturday morning our temperatures get even colder, with lows around zero for almost all of the northeast. Wind chills will still be bitterly cold with it feeling like -10 to -30 degrees.
By afternoon, all of New England will see sun, with highs in the 20s south and in the teens north. The wind subsides to a breeze, so the wind chills won't be as bad.
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Sunday our temperatures will warm a few more degrees, with increasing clouds.
Monday and Tuesday we have a coastal storm that will bring in wind for all, heavy snow northwest and a mix to rain southeast. The track of this and timing are still to be determined, but we do expect a storm at that time.
After this storm, we may warm up a bit to 40s by the end of next week, which means we're tracking rain instead of snow with another potential storm moving through.
