The cold air that took firm hold of New England on Monday came just ahead of our next storm system – perfectly timed to coincide with the onset of precipitation and produce a swath of snow.
In the North Country of New England, skiers and snowmobilers are delighting today in the knowledge that a natural base is finally falling on trails, with the Maine Mountains, in particular, forecast to pick up a foot of snow, and the mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont set to receive six to twelve inches.
For most other New Englanders, however, the setup is more complex – the cold air that was so well entrenched is being eroded from the east and from the south. The air coming in from the east is blowing in off an exceptionally warm Atlantic Ocean, where water temperatures are running at 47°, and this blanket of warmth will continue pushing a rain line inland from the coast through Tuesday morning into the midday, eventually pushing all the way through Central Massachusetts and Southeast New Hampshire to the Interstate 93 corridor.
Warmer air moving up from the south takes a different in-road to New England than its ocean counterpart – rather than coming in all at once, the warmth from the south has seen a more gentle approach, riding over the top of the cold air that is so dense and stubborn across the interior of Central and Southern New England. This has resulted in a pocket of freezing rain and sleet for the deep interior, and it will be slow to change to plain rain today. Though snow continues in the North Country through the afternoon, most of New England sees steady precipitation tapering to showers not long after midday.
