Several rounds of impactful weather are heading our way in the days to come. Let’s start with Friday. An arctic front sweeps south with scattered snow showers and squalls, not widespread, but where they hit, they’ll hit hard. Expect sudden gusts, a quick burst of snow, reduced visibility, and a coating to 1″ (an isolated 2″ in northern New England). Timing favors late morning–midday north, sinking south through the afternoon. Southern New England reaches the 30s briefly, then drops sharply through the 20s, teens, and single digits by Friday night.
With gusts 25-35 mph, wind chills plunge to -15° to -20° on the higher terrain of southern New England, below zero to Cape Cod, and -30° to -40° in the coldest pockets of northern New England. This is serious cold: vulnerable car batteries, burst-pipe risk, and frostbite in 15–30 minutes if you’re not layered up and covering up exposed skin.
Saturday doesn’t improve much…highs only in the single digits to low teens, and it’ll feel near 0° in southern New England, -5° to -10° central/west, and -10° to -20° in northern New England. Saturday night is similarly cold; even with a touch less wind, wind chills still run -15° to -20° from Augusta to Bangor/Bar Harbor, -20° to -30° far north, and 0° to -10° inland southern New England.
After that, all attention shifts to the storm. A sprawling system producing snow, sleet, freezing rain, and cirppling effect across parts of the central/southern U.S. spreads snow into southern New England Sunday morning, expanding northward Sunday afternoon/evening. The peak snowfall looks to be Sunday evening into overnight, with pockets lingering into Monday.
Track matters, and we’ll fine-tune it, but agreement is strong on a widespread 6–12″ snow for most of New England, lighter in far northern Maine. The probability of 9″+ is high for the southern two-thirds of New England, with over a foot possible in southern New England. Cape/Islands could flirt with brief mixing if the low tucks closer. Coastal wind impacts look limited, though 20–30 mph gusts for many Sunday night (brief 30-40 mph on the Cape) will mean some isolated pockets of damage possible and white-out conditions for a time. This will be a fluffy, high-ratio snow for most (fast to pile up and easy to move), with a wetter pastier feel nearer the immediate southeast coast. Snowfall rates peak ~1″/hr, locally 2″/hr Sunday night into early Monday. Expect significant travel disruption Sunday evening through Monday AM by plane, train, and automobile.
We’ll keep tuning specifics and hope you’ll join us for pre-storm livestreams for members.
