First major storm of winter brings rain to Boston, snow west of Worcester

By Terry Eliasen, WBZ-TV Meteorologist, Executive Weather Producer

BOSTON - By midafternoon Friday, the coastal storm hitting New England was at the halfway point.

This one has played out just as planned, several inches of heavy, wet snow have accumulated in the highest elevations in northern Worcester County and the Berkshires. The ski areas in central and northern New England are getting plastered with a foot or more of new snow...an early Christmas present!

Back down at sea level here in Boston, the story the rest of today continues to be the wind and rain.

Periods of heavy rain will continue to spiral in from the south and east through Friday night. Lots of big puddles, hydroplaning and localized flooding. When all is said and done, we expect, on average, somewhere between 1.5-2.5" of water across central and eastern MA.

 Later Friday night, around and after midnight, as the storm pulls away, colder air will move in from west to east. The rain will begin to mix with and change to snow, especially in northern MA.

 Temperatures will remain a few degrees above freezing in eastern MA, so I doubt there will be any significant accumulation, perhaps a scattered coating on the grass here and there. This is more just a "heads up" for anyone waking up to snow falling tomorrow morning...don't freak out, it will taper off by mid-morning.

Here is our snowfall forecast from 5pm Friday through the end of the storm, Saturday morning...as you can see, they aren't done yet in those elevated areas.

The strongest winds will die off Friday night, but we will remain gusty right through the day on Saturday (out of the west).

 Finally, come Sunday, things quiet down for a while. If you are traveling or shopping early next week, there are no weather concerns.

BUT...I bet you knew that was coming...later next week we will be watching for yet another powerful storm sweeping across the country. The timeframe to watch here in the northeast would be late Thursday and Friday. It is just WAY too early to tell what sort of impact it will have here.

To illustrate just how silly it would be to try and make any sort of detailed forecast...the "spark" or "energy" for this storm is currently located over northern Russia, near the East Siberian Sea. I guess you could say if we do end up with a major storm here, we can blame it on the Russians.

Needless to say, A LOT can and will happen on its travels around the globe. So, if you come across any crazy looking weather forecasts online this weekend, take them with a grain of salt. I would recommend not stressing over it just yet. And, certainly don't change any travel plans for later next week just yet.

As always, we'll keep you posted!