Storm to arrive Saturday night, how much snow will Massachusetts and Boston get?
BOSTON - The WBZ Weather Team is continuing the NEXT Weather Alert for all of southern New England for the weekend nor'easter.
Here are the main headlines and changes Friday:
- The timeline has moved up a bit...start times are a bit earlier and the period of heaviest snowfall is also a bit earlier
- While it will continue to snow during the day Sunday, it will mainly be light to moderate and may struggle to accumulate along and east of I-95 where temperatures are near or above freezing and mixing with rain will occur
- The highest snow totals will be located north and west of Boston in the Merrimack Valley and Worcester County
- There will be a flash freeze Sunday afternoon and evening across eastern MA
Winter Storm Warning
The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning Saturday Evening through Sunday for most of Essex County, Middlesex County and Worcester County. These are the areas that have the greatest risk of at least 6" of snow accumulation.
When will it snow in Massachusetts?
As stated above, the storm is now set to arrive a few hours earlier. A shield of moderate to heavy snow will overspread southern New England between 6p-10p Saturday night.
Once the snow arrives it will come down fairly heavy right away and continue through Sunday morning. Snowfall rates in some heavier bands could reach or top 1" per hour.
While it will still be snowing most of the day on Sunday, the rates will not be as intense as overnight.
The storm will begin to pull away late Sunday afternoon. Accumulation should stop from west to east between 4-6pm.
Snow/Precipitation Type:
The farther inland you live, the lighter and fluffier the snow.
Closer to the coastline, (inside I-495) temperatures will be closer to, or slightly above 32 degrees and the snow will be much heavier/wetter. It may even mix with rain at times at the immediate shore. This is the region we are most concerned about getting some scattered power outages given the pasty snow and gusty wind.
Out over Cape Cod and the Islands, it will be mainly rain until the winds turn more northerly late in the storm on Sunday.
How much snow will Boston get?
Final snowfall amounts:
6-10" - North and west of I-95 and 128 including much of Essex, Middlesex and Worcester counties as well as southern New Hampshire (There could be a few isolated areas that receive up to 12")
3-6" - Tight area right around 128 extending into inland (northern) Plymouth and Bristol counties
1-3" - Immediate coastline from Cape Ann to Boston down through the South Shore and Cape Cod Canal
Very little (if any) Outer Cape and Nantucket
Winds:
The winds will not be a huge factor away from the coastline. Northeast gusts will peak between 35-45 mph right at the Shoreline and 45-55mph over Cape Cod and the Islands. Certainly not the strongest wind event we have had in recent weeks, but perhaps enough to cause some outages in the heavy/wet snow areas.
Are there coastal flooding concerns?
Tides are astronomically low this weekend. Therefore, the threat for any significant coastal flooding is low.
The times to watch would be the Sunday morning (7-8am) tide cycle along east-northeast facing beaches and the Sunday evening (7-8pm) cycle in the more north-northeast facing beaches.
Flash Freeze:
Sunday's storm will also come with a flash freeze.
As the winds turn northerly in the afternoon and evening, sub-freezing air will be pulled down the coastline.
Temperatures will drop 5-10 degrees in a matter of minutes and, many areas that were in the mid to upper 30s, will quickly plunge into the 20s causing any untreated surfaces to ice up.
Patriots Game:
Of course, we cannot forget the Patriots are playing their final home game on Sunday afternoon at Gillette!
Light snow will be falling for parts of the game and temperatures will be dropping from the low 30s into the 20s.
Next Storm:
Lastly, unfortunately the stormy pattern will continue into next week.
Another strong storm will approach New England late Tuesday. This one may start briefly as a mix but then quickly change to a windswept rainstorm.
There may be several inches of rain Tuesday night into Wednesday, causing a rapid snowmelt and undoubtedly, a lot of flooding.
More on this to come...
As always, our WBZ Weather team will have you covered for the entire event on WBZ-TV, WBZ.com and CBS News Boston.
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