After Thursday’s record-breaking snow, damaging winds, and devastating flooding at the coastline, Friday brought sunshine and a glimpse of the bitter cold blast that is settling in for this weekend.
Today, with winds out of the west at 10-20 mph and gusts in the 30-40 mph range, we’ll have brutally cold wind chills with some spots, especially northern New England, the Berkshires, and even in Central Massachusetts, with wind chills nearing 30 to 40 below. With these dangerously cold wind chills, a Wind Chill Warning has been issued for most of interior New England through tomorrow, as well as a Wind Chill Advisory for areas closer to the coastline.
Along with the gusty winds, blowing and drifting snow will be an issue if you are traveling today. With a predominately westerly wind, any roads that run north to south will likely see reduced visibility from blowing snow and some snow back on the road ways that have already been cleared. Plus, a few spots along the Canadian border will experience reduced visibility associated with some snow showers crossing over from Canada. These will be scattered and break apart.
Temperatures today will struggle to make it out of the single digits for most of the region, with some spots possible tying or breaking records that date as far back as 1896. We could also set new records overnight with the brutal cold into early tomorrow morning. Overnight lows are expected to slip to at least 5 to 15 below zero. Plus, with a slight shift in wind direction, to out of the northwest, the Outer Cape could get a few ocean-effect snow showers overnight into tomorrow morning.
Sunday brings another mostly sunny day, but not nearly as brutally cold. Highs reach into the mid to upper teens south, 10s north. The frigid cold blast finally comes to an end Monday when high temperatures are expected to reach above the freezing mark. The last time we reached above freezing was Christmas Day, so it’s been a 12-day stretch (including today) and believe it or not, it’s not the longest stretch of below freezing high temperatures. Boston has experienced a 16-day stretch of at or less than 32 degree highs in late January, early February of 1961.
Now back to the warmth, the warm-up doesn’t stop on Monday, we continue the warm-up through the work week with high temperatures possibly flirting with 50 by Thursday and Friday. The next chance for precipitation is Monday into early Tuesday with some scattered snow showers early Monday morning, before a chance for rain by Monday afternoon in southeastern Massachusetts. These showers will not be as widespread or as potent as Thursday’s storm, just a disturbance sliding through from the Midwest.
A lingering snow flurry in the mountains is expected early Tuesday before a drier midweek slides in.
U.S. & World
As always, you can stay up to date with the very latest forecast and the exclusive 10-day forecast by downloading the NBC 10 Boston / necn app.
