Weather

Powerful Offshore Storm Could Bring Snow to Some

It's not for everyone, but some snow may fly Friday night.

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Just when you thought it was safe to put away the snowblower, a nor'easter blows up offshore. But hang on. It's not nearly as sinister as it sounds. Sure, we'll be on the extreme edge of the storm Friday night, but it's not like we're guaranteed widespread accumulation. In fact, the minor accumulations seem to be sequestered to the Cape and Islands — and even there, the forecast is shaky.

As the storm develops and intensifies — I know you wanna hear us use that over-hyped weather term "bombogenesis" — far offshore, it will fling some snow and rain bands back across the commonwealth. Many will fall short. Many will fray and scatter. But some will survive the trip and reach the shore. We'll have to wait for them, though. Much of Friday will be spent with clouds slowly increasing and temps hovering in the mid and upper 40s. Yawn.

The event really gets going late at night. Gusts will hit 40-55 mph on the Cape and Islands and around 40 along the North and South Shores as the storm makes its closest approach.

Crashing waves will cause minor beach erosion at time of high tide on Saturday. Tides themselves will run about 2 feet higher than normal, possibly causing minor splashover on northeast-facing beaches.

As for snow, it's always a wildcard on the Cape. I tried not to get cute with the bands, but whenever you draw snow accumulation maps for the Cape, you have to be cute.

Much of this will melt on Saturday, but in some cases, the salt/sand trucks will be out late Friday night (think dripping wet snow if it accumulates ... 3 inches may be a stretch).

Winds will slowly ramp down Saturday afternoon and night as the storm — ahem — nor'easter blows away.

In its wake, the weekend shines ... and warms. We're not settling for 50s next week, however. Some spots reach to 70 as a major warm-up heads into New England.

I'd jump up and down about it, but as we've seen already this winter (did you forget we hit 70s in January?) it's sadly becoming the norm in this outrageously mild season.

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