The Mild Air Is Gone. Time To Dress For Cooler Times.
Well, that was interesting. A whole lot of talk about snow, yet very little of it panned out. Too much warmth, too little cold. The cold just took too long to move in..before the precip quickly ended.. The cold was not even cold enough to allow for much accumulation in the hills...where it WAS snowing, but not accumulating. Pittsfield, MA and Springfield, VT reporting a paltry total of only 1.5". 4" in Rutland, VT. Some ski areas are waking up with 3-7" of new snow across VT & NH so that will help the cause for a better weekend of skiing with several days cold enough for snow making.
This storm was a rainmaker.. a widespread 2-2.5" of rainfall in the past 24 hours. Flood watches are up as streams and rivers will be seeing some minor flooding in the next day or two as the water flows into the larger rivers. The Connecticut, Assabet, Pawtuxet, Suncook appear to be the most vulnerable for minor flooding.
The Storm is quickly pulling away into the Canadian maritimes and wrapping in blustery NW winds which are quickly drying any puddles on the roads. The strongest winds happened in the early morning with a peak gust at Point Judith, RI of 79 mph at 3:54 AM! Most peak gusts this AM have been in the 40-60 mph range...but even those gusts have shifted offshore. Still Strong winds will persist for most of the day...but diminish slightly by afternoon. Winds are ushering in cooler drier air, so we will see increasing sunshine through the day but temps will be slow to warm with cold air advection. Highs climb into the mid 40's, but feel like they are in the 30's with wind chill. Winds will die down tonight as temps fall back into the colder 20's.
Increasing high to mid level clouds on Friday will help create a filtered appearance to the sun...Partly sunny with breezy SW winds will make it a slightly more comfortable day. An Arctic front approaches Friday night with a few snow showers in the far NW. Clouds and front will push off the coast Saturday morning with increasing sunshine and another shot of Cold air..this time...it will likely be one of the coldest shots of air we have seen so far in this mild start to the cold season. 850 mb temps drop down -12C Saturday which is a kind of cold we have yet to see. This airmass sits over us for the weekend keeping temps in the 30's and lwr 40's with increasing sunshine with building high pressure from the west into the start of next week. A stretch of pleasant weather to enjoy...we just have to dress a little warmer.
Here are a pic to warm your little hearts.
Powder day Smugglers Notch 5-6" New snow
