Good evening everybody, to jump right into a storm update, we’ve got a Miller B type snowstorm on the way to the greater WMass region, whereby a primary storm will push into the Appalachians (after wreaking havoc on a wide swath of the U.S.), and then reform along the Mid-Atlantic coastline and pass somewhere near The Benchmark or possibly closer to around 50 miles south of Nantucket.

We have had these storm setups before where a storm tracks southwest to northeast toward New England and the guidance just keeps the storm coming north, north, and north and before you know it, we have a snow to icing event with warm air aloft advancing over the WMass region. Usually in those prior instances, we have had no cold Canadian or Arctic high to the north up near the Canadian border.

However, I highly, highly doubt that’s happening this time as we have a different set up with cold Arctic high pressure setting up to our north near the Crown of Maine, draining cold, dry, Arctic air southwestward into our region.

With such a deep, massive, antecedent pool of deep cold air in place before this storm arrives, it will act as a wall against the mid-level warm nose which WILL push copious moisture out of the Pacific and Gulf and into central and southern New England , which should keep us all snow, best I can tell.

As far as consistency, it should be a light and fluffy type snowfall for areas along and north of the CT/MA state line, with *maybe* some wetter consistency further south in CT.

AMOUNTS
I think that given the super dry and cold air in place that this moist air is going to slam into, along with additional snowfall on Monday as the primary low and upper low swing through New England, we’re going to see a fluffy snow that should fall at rates of 1-2″ per hour at times, with the heaviest Sunday afternoon and evening before drier air works into the region.

At this point given the trends I am seeing, I think an 8-12″ accumulation along and north of the Route 2 corridor with 10-18″ south of there throughout the rest WMass, CMass and northern CT should do it.

DRY SLOT
If the storm pushes through a little faster, we should see a dry slot work into at least CT by midnight or so, cutting off heavier snow there, and so this may cause issues with snow totals, but we do have additional light to moderate snow on Monday with wraparound periods of snow, and those amounts cover through Monday night.

TIMING
Snow showers should start off after a period of virga, or evaporating snow Sunday morning. By mid to late morning, those snow showers should reach the ground, and by afternoon snow will become steady quickly, and start accumulating immediately, so travel in the afternoon will likely go downhill quickly.

Snow should become moderate to heavy by late afternoon and the first part of Sunday night before any dry slot sweeps through and lightens the intensity during the pre-dawn hours of Monday. However, with 1 to 2″ per hour snowfall rates, we’ll get accumulation to pile up, the way it looks now.

BACK END SNOW MONDAY
Behind the dry slot as the primary hunk of snow blasts east and out to sea, we’ll still have the primary surface low along with its upper low feature to lollygag east and through the region, which will add additional snow accumulations.

It’ll be plenty cold on Monday, so I expected a few inches or so to accumulate through the day and evening before it all quits.

I will try to add more detail in the coming days.

COLD, COLD, COLD
Obviously, this storm is predicate on the incoming Arctic blast that precedes it, arriving by tomorrow night with dangerous wind chills of -20 to -30º below zero.

Highs tomorrow will reach the highs in the 20s to lwo 30s, crashing to between 10 degrees below zero to 5 degrees above zero, with highs mostly in the single digits on Saturday, with more single digits to low teens on Sunday when the snow arrives.

I am out of gas for today folks, I”m heading to bed and will be up early tomorrow with my morning report prior to being on WRSI 93.9FM with Steve Sanderson at 7:30am and on NEPM 88.5FM with Monte Belmonte and Kaliis Smith between 3-4pm.

I have a big announcement to make in the morning as well, so be on the lookout for that so we can stay better connected through the upcoming winter outbreak.

Have a great night!