New England is on the precipice of another storm, with snow north and rain south – just the way many New Englanders say they prefer their winter storms.
The only affects of the changing weather pattern Wednesday are lots of clouds and areas of sprinkles, flurries, drizzle and fog – temperatures remain milder than normal, though the abundance of clouds is keeping us all noticeably cooler than the last couple of days.
The energetic disturbance ejecting out of the Midwest and Ohio Valley, carried by the jet stream winds aloft – the fast, storm steering winds – will focus an area of blossoming rain through Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic Wednesday evening and night, arriving to New England just in time for the morning commute Thursday, prompting the issuance of a First Alert from our Weather Team.
In northern New England, enough cold air is holding on for snow, not rain, and our First Alert team is predicting over a foot of snow in some of the higher terrain of New Hampshire and Maine, with a widespread four to eight inches fairly commonplace throughout mountain communities.
Wind will gust from the east across the Green Mountains overnight Wednesday night, along the eastern Massachusetts coast Thursday morning and along the Maine coast Thursday late morning and midday, reaching 40 to 50 mph in higher gusts and ensuring any snow changes to rain along the coast of Maine Thursday, though snow will continue farther inland.
For southern New England, the inch of rain that falls Thursday morning will exit as soon as mid-morning, leaving emerging sunshine and a busy, drying wind from the southwest gusting to 40 mph.
U.S. & World
By late Thursday, most of northern New England will also be drying out though mountain flurries and snow showers will persist from time to time into Friday.
The weekend features fair sky and – at least on Friday – a cool breeze that will ease Saturday and Sunday, but chilly air more typical of winter will be in place Friday through Monday, ensuring fantastic skiing and snowmobiling conditions yet again across Northern and Central New England.
The next significant storm for our nation winds up next week, but it will develop well to our west, encouraging a deep southerly wind flow through the atmosphere, meaning temperatures are likely to rise back into at least the 50s and probably even 60s for at least a time next week around midweek in this winter that fails to deliver lasting cold to most of the nation.
