Lingering Snow & Cold Will Make It Slippery
BOSTON (CBS) - It just keeps going and going.
Though our "storm" is now well out to sea, an upper disturbance is crossing through southern New England tonight, which is allowing the snowfall to blossom a bit from Worcester to Boston to the South Shore.
Once this energy pulls off the coast, the lingering snow showers will finally begin to dwindle and pull away. I expect most of the snow to be over with after midnight. The heaviest of the snow fell in New Hampshire and Maine, with some reports exceeding a foot!
In southern New England, heaviest amounts were confined to Worcester county with a few towns reporting six inches. Though the amounts weren't especially high, the weight of the water-loaded snow was back breaking.
The Cape picked up 1.5" of rain in the past 24 hours. Some of this moisture was directed into New England, interacted with the cold air, and became heavy wet snow. While most in Worcester had 3-6" of snow, it has about an 1" of liquid in it! That water is heavy! With tonight's snow, a few of these towns may climb to 6-8".
Across Metrowest to the coast, the snow just has not been able to stick at all. Snow is accumulating a bit better this evening. With the sun gone, this left over snow shower activity will have a chance to still deposit an additional inch or two of snow, especially in the hilly terrain, cold surfaces and grassy areas.
Temperatures will continue to drop below freezing overnight, so we will have to watch for black ice forming. This could make for slippery travel early Monday morning during the commute, especially on those secondary roads which have picked up more snow.
High pressure builds in Monday to Tuesday, so we can finally string together a few good days with temps either side of 40. We will be tracking our next disturbance coming out of the Gulf for the midweek. This low will track towards the Ohio Valley.
The precipitation will be arriving after midnight Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning. Temps will be cold enough at the start, especially across central and northern New England to start off as a period of snow or sleet. A warm front will be approaching us, but it does not look like it will be able to lift northward on Wednesday. This will leave us with cool, breezy east winds with developing rain in the 30's, while in the northern ski areas we could see an additional foot of snow!
Rain will begin to taper off late Wednesday, but an upper low will continue to sit over us to end the week, trapping clouds over us and a few scattered rain or snow showers. The air along with this upper low is not that cold. Seasonal temps can be expected as we end the week and the month with a drier weekend ahead.
Either way, the blocking pattern will resume heading into March with still plenty of cold and energy to track in the overall pattern. It does not appear to be an early spring, if that is what you were hoping for. But look on the bright side, February is ending! It was a snowy month, we are weary and tired of winter, so let's look forward to what is right around the corner. It will be here soon enough!
