Weather

School Closures in Massachusetts, New Hampshire Due to Snowstorm

More than a foot of snow could fall in some parts of New England

The much anticipated storm has begun.

It was a record low barometer reading of 28.69” the when storm came ashore in California on Tuesday.

The storm has been making headlines from coast to coast ever since. Now it is our turn.

Generally we watch storms move from the West Coast to the East Coast in three days. This one has taken five days so far and will not be offshore until tomorrow. Because it’s moving so slowly we now anticipate it may last closer to a 48 hour storm here, so a long duration storm has become even longer in our latest forecast.

Some schools have already canceled classes on Monday due to the snowstorm.

Snow and a wintry mix arrived in Southwestern New England at noon today, and continues to progress north and east as a wall of snow that quickly changes to sleet inland, and rain along the coast. In the first hour or two some of us are getting one to two inches of snow. North of the Massachusetts Turnpike, we may have four or five inches of snow by 9 p.m. or 10 p.m.

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Near the shore, less than an inch of snow is anticipated along the south coast, and two inches along the East Coast.

Late tonight and tomorrow, the precipitation will let up for a time before the storm re-develops south of New England and bands of heavier precipitation return tomorrow night.

Temperatures tonight are holding in the 20s inland but rising to the 40s near the coast.

Wind at the shore is increasing from the east and northeast gusting past 40 m.p.h. tonight and tomorrow. Inland it’s a much lighter wind from the north.

Therein lies the problem, in that light northerly flow we have a low level cold air. While up in the sky much warmer air the changes snow and sleet to rain.

Tomorrow, we likely end up with rain and drizzle falling into a sub-freezing layer west and north of I-95 from New York to Maine.

So, even though the precipitation is fairly late tomorrow, we may have an icy glaze forming, and it only takes a little bit of ice to cause problems on untreated surfaces.

Then as the new storm takes shape later tomorrow and tomorrow night, we have colder wind at all levels of the atmosphere and bands of heavy snow should develop in southern and eastern and New England.

Now it looks like we may have more snow on the ground for our Tuesday morning than our Monday morning. This is why we’re now calling it a 48 hour nor’easter.

The store may not end in Eastern Maine until Tuesday night early Wednesday.

Thanks to a lower astronomical tide, we’re not expecting major coastal flooding, but coastal erosion is quite likely as the storm lasts for four tide cycles. Seas will build to 10 to 15 feet.

Also, with a wet pasty snow, we may have to deal with some power outages near the rain-snow line as wind and snow picks up Monday night into Tuesday morning.

Low pressure finally pulls out late Tuesday, leaving us dry and cold to start Wednesday morning.

But a new storm that came in to California today, will weaken as it goes over the Rockies and then move much faster and arrive in Western New England late Wednesday.

There will be an attempt by a new coastal storm to form at that time, but we’re thinking it will just come through with a few rain or snow showers. Followed by much colder weather coming in late this week and to start the weekend.

But the storms are all lined up in the Pacific Ocean and we see no extended quiet weather here in first alert 10 day forecast through the first week of December, the beginning of meteorological wintry is starting out quite wintry.

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