Good afternoon everyone,
High confidence that a wintry mix that will impact the Thursday morning commute, but amounts will be light. A second stronger storm will impact the region Thursday night into Friday, but there is more uncertainty how we are impacted. Heavy rain and pockets of street flooding are possible across Rhode Island and Southeast MA. There is also a low probability for significant ice accretion across the interior high terrain of Massachusetts, but uncertainty is high given temperatures right near freezing. We have included a brief outline below and some graphics. Please note that the graphics only include the first event.
1) Late Wednesday Night Into Thursday Afternoon Event
What/When/Where:
- Precipitation starts between 2 and 5 AM Thursday morning. Main precipitation type will initially be sleet and freezing rain, but a brief period of snow is possible at the onset with the best chance across northern MA.
- The wintry mix should change to rain along and southeast of the Boston to Providence corridor by late Thursday morning. Sleet and freezing rain will linger into the afternoon across parts of interior MA & CT, but begin to taper off.
- Most locations should have ended as light rain or drizzle by late Thursday afternoon, but a few pockets of lingering freezing drizzle can not be ruled out across the high terrain of the Berkshires and northern Worcester Hills.
Potential Snow/Ice Accumulations:
- Snow and sleet accumulations of a coating to 2 inches are expected. The best chance of seeing an inch or two of snow and sleet will be north of the Massachusetts Turnpike.
- Ice accretion on the order of a few hundredths to one tenth of an inch are expected for much of southern New England
Impacts/Uncertainty:
- High confidence that the wintry mix will coincide with the Thursday morning rush hour, despite relatively light amounts of snow and ice.
- The biggest uncertainty is whether or not we initially see a few inches of snow in northern MA or mainly just sleet and freezing rain. Either way, the Thursday morning rush hour will be impacted.
- Confident that most of the region will be above freezing by late Thursday afternoon, except perhaps the highest terrain of the Berkshires and northern Worcester Hills.
2) Thursday night and Friday Event:
Potential Impacts / Uncertainty:
- This will be a much stronger storm than the first event, but more uncertainty in regards to how we are impacted.
- 1 to 3 inches of rain is possible which may result in some street flooding especially across Rhode Island and Southeast Massachusetts. Heaviest rain late Thursday night into early Friday morning.
- Temperatures might be marginally cold enough for freezing rain / icing across portions of interior Massachusetts. Low probability for 0.25 to 0.50 half inch of ice accretion in parts of the Berkshires and northern Worcester Hills.
- Rain may change to snow Friday afternoon and early evening with a few inches of accumulation possible. Highest risk for that is across northern Massachusetts.
- Biggest concern is the potential for ice accretion to reach one half inch across parts of the Berkshires and Worcester Hills. While a low probability, this would bring the potential for scattered power outages.
Thank You