WINTER ROLLS ON

I love the winter, but even I'm starting to get sick of it. 

Good afternoon everyone! Well, what a beautiful January March day it was out there today! Crystal clear skies, high temperatures near 30, and NW winds 15-30 mph. In fact, many areas gusted even higher! Below is a graphic including some of the top wind gust reports over the past 24 hours.

Pair that with high temps 15-20 degrees below average, you have wind chills in the teens at times. Absolutely brutal for mid-March.

Unfortunately, there's no real end in sight. You can view my latest 7 day forecast on the sidebar to the right, which shows this abnormal cold continuing on. In an air mass like this, once you start bring precipitation into the picture, you have to start talking about snow. 

Yes, Friday is the first day of astronomical Spring. And yes, there is a chance of snow for much of the region, especially during the afternoon and evening hours. A system will track well to the south of New England before turning a bit more northward on Friday. This should allow for much of the region to experience at least a light snowfall. 

Model Images (12z GFS) via AccuPro

I have a couple of takeaways from what I have looked at from the models this afternoon:

1. The system never really intensifies rapidly as it hits the waters of the Atlantic.

2. The storm system itself moves in rapidly and moves out rapidly. 

Both of these factors above indicate that we will not see a significant snowfall out of this storm. However, it does appear that we will have enough moisture in the low and mid levels of the atmosphere to prevent a "confinement" of the snow. In other words, the entire region will likely see at least a nuisance snow. 

Above are my general thoughts in term of snowfall. The heaviest amounts should fall across SE MA, Central and Northern RI, and Southern CT. 1-2" is likely for most of the region, while around 1" is expected into Northwestern New England and Cape Cod. Snow will likely mix with rain on Cape Cod at some point, keeping totals down there.

Snow should end Saturday morning, and afternoon high temperatures could reach the lower 40s. But right after that, more cold air invades the region. 

 MATT HOENIG - 6:11 PM