The cold air has locked in our chance to see snow once our next system moves in Saturday.
The rest of tonight will be cold and blustery, though not as windy. Lows drop to the single digits north, and to the teens south with wind chills about 10-15 degrees colder.
Saturday morning will start off cold but dry with increasing clouds. The snow slowly moves into western New England between noon and 3 p.m. The snow showers continue to expand west to the east between 3 and 6 p.m., then arriving in Boston.
We'll see the heaviest snow from this storm after 6 p.m., with snow rates pushing 1 inch per hour in some areas. The snow accumulates quickly with the cold air already in place from Friday.
Here's an Hour-by-Hour Breakdown of the Snowstorm
Hour-by-Hour Timeline of This Weekend’s Snowstorm
Weather Stories
The wind changes direction Saturday evening and will usher in warmer air across southern New England, so we see a wintry mix to rain for a brief time from the Massachusetts/Vermont and New Hampshire border and south.
Drier air moves in by daybreak and the precipitation is over for those areas. Northern New England will see snow the whole time, through Saturday night into Sunday afternoon. Mountains and ski areas will continue to get fresh powder through Sunday evening as well.
Snow totals will be less south and more to the north. We expect one-three inches of snow on Cape Cod through Providence, 3-6 inches from Boston to Springfield and Hartford. Six-9 inches of snow is expected from northern Massachusetts to Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine with higher elevations getting over 9 inches of snow through Sunday afternoon.
Sunday will give us a little break from the brutal winter temperatures in southern New England as highs reach the low to mid-40s and this leads to some melting snow already. We stay in the 20s to 30s north all day with a gusty wind.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is on Monday and we will get much colder as highs fall to the 20s. The cold air settles in with highs in the 20s through Wednesday.
A gradual warming trend returns for the end of next week. The workweek remains pretty dry and sunny, but cold.
Our next system moves in for the following weekend and that may bring another burst of snow into the northeast.