We have a First Alert declared for New England as bitter cold wind chills take over tonight into Friday. Lows tonight dip to near zero far north, and in the teens and 20s south.
With a gusty northwest wind between 25 and 35 mph, our wind chills fall to -10 to -30 degrees. This means that frostbite can set in on exposed skin in 30 minutes or less, especially in higher elevations.
There won't be much improvement for Friday afternoon as highs reach the teens and 20s, but wind chills will remain 0 to -20 degrees with the strong northwest wind. Most of the day will be sunny, but more clouds and snow showers develop in the mountains and across coastal Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts as a shortwave spins in from the northeast.
Friday afternoon through evening we're looking at scattered coatings to an inch around eastern Massachusetts, 1-3" coastal Maine and in the mountains, and 3" or more across outer Cape Cod. The cold air will create higher and fluffier snow ratios. So instead of 10:1 it may be more like 15:1.
On Saturday morning our temperatures get even colder with lows around zero for almost all of the northeast. Wind chills will still be bitterly cold with it feeling like -10 to -30 degrees.
By the afternoon, we see sun for all and highs in the 20s south, teens north. The wind subsides to a breeze, so the wind chills won't be as bad. Sunday our temperatures warm a few more degrees with increasing clouds.
Monday and Tuesday we have a coastal storm that will bring in wind for all, heavy snow northwest and a mix to rain southeast. The track of this and timing are still to be determined, but we do expect a storm at that time. After this storm, we may warm up a bit to 40s by the end of next week, which means we're tracking rain instead of snow with another potential storm moving through.
