Our extended stretch of dry weather continues for a couple more days with sunshine and wispy, cirrus clouds Thursday, then variable clouds on Friday, but no rain or snow through week’s end.
The sprawling area of high pressure - a fair weather cell - stretched across the eastern United States and responsible for driving a cold, northerly wind deep into the South is slowly shifting east. With a clockwise flow of air around high pressure centers, this means a new, southwest wind is blowing across New England, carrying in noticeably milder air with high temperatures both Thursday and Friday, rebounding into the 40s, and overnight lows below freezing Thursday night, raising a flag for patchy black ice where melted snow and ice refreezes on back roads, exit and entrance ramps to highways and on walkways.
A slow-moving storm system on the western periphery of our high pressure dome will trudge east into New England by Saturday, arriving during the afternoon as rain showers for southern New England and flurries to snow and mix in northern New England. The time of greatest impact will be Saturday evening and night, but for most of the southern half of New England little more than some mixed snowflakes at the onset are expected with regard to wintry weather - it’ll be rain that goes down the drain with an easterly wind.
Farther north, more snow will fall late Saturday into Saturday night, with a few inches possible from southern Vermont to central New Hampshire and southern Maine, and as much as half a foot possible in the mountains.
On Sunday, the storm shifts far enough north for southern New England to see lots of clouds, breaks of sun and only a snow or rain shower, though snow showers will continue in northern New England, particularly in the mountains.
Next week looks storm-free out of the gate all the way until our next disturbance, possible of brewing some rain or snow showers by Friday into Saturday at the end of our First Alert 10-day.
