1-to-3 inches of snow forecast across most of Massachusetts
By Terry Eliasen, WBZ-TV Meteorologist, Executive Weather Producer
BOSTON - There is a WBZ-TV NEXT Weather alert in effect for Friday. There is a Winter Weather Advisory in effect until 7 p.m. for interior locations.
The heaviest precipitation will occur through mid-to-late afternoon on Friday. Temperatures will be borderline (near 32 degrees), making it a tough call as to where snow will be falling versus rain.
For now, it appears as though I-95 may be a good dividing line with a wet, pasty snow to the west and a rain/snow mix or plain rain to the east.
This is a very quick moving system. By dusk and the evening commute, most of the precipitation and accumulation will be over.
Our current snowfall forecast is for 1-to-3 inches west of I-95 which includes most of Worcester, Middlesex and Essex counties. We cannot rule out a few areas receiving up to 4 or 5 inches if the snowfall comes down hard enough on Friday.
Along the immediate coastline from Cape Ann to Boston and the immediate South Shore, we expect more of a rain/snow mix and just a coating to an inch of snow.
Over southeastern Mass., including the Cape and Islands, it will be all rain.
The strange thing is, it is January 5th and this could be the biggest snowfall of the season thus far in some areas!
Boston's biggest snow from any one storm so far is 0.9" and Worcester's is 2.5 inches. Boston got its first snowstorm of an inch or greater on January 7th last year. This year we are still waiting!
Whatever snowfall does accumulate on Friday likely won't be hanging around too long. With sunshine returning this weekend and high temperatures back into the upper 30s and low 40s, much of our fresh snowpack will be gone by next week.
