This week’s weather pattern has been repetitive - a series of energetic disturbances aloft are prompting clouds, flurries and snow showers with gradually cooler air each day. Meanwhile, significant moisture needed for larger storm development stays separate, to the south.
The pattern won’t change much in the days ahead, though changes in temperature will become a bit more pronounced with a warm front, then cold front, expected to cross New England.
Before those changes, we start with a repeat of the familiar pattern Thursday. There will be limited early sun to thickening clouds, scattered flurries and snow showers with little accumulation, then some evening clearing.
Overnight Friday night, a warm front approaches New England. This will help to trigger some heavier snow showers in Northern New England – particularly the mountains – with a coating to 1” for many. Some select Green Mountain high terrain will pick up as much as half a foot at summits by Friday morning!
For the vast majority of us, it’s a flurry in the forecast predawn Friday with a push of warmer air that allows a fair sky to bump temperatures above 40 degrees for much of central and southern New England. The brief respite from January chill will last only one day, as a round of late Friday snow showers and flurries represents a cold front.
This shift in wind opens the door to Canadian, polar air – not arctic, but cold enough to hold Saturday and Sunday high temperatures shy of 30 degrees and in the teens for the North Country, even under ample sunshine. A steady wind both weekend days will add wind chill to the mix and may cause some summit chairlift holds for northern New England at times, particularly Sunday morning.
Early next week, a storm moving east from the Midwest will tend to slide south of New England, though our First Alert Team is watching a separate northern jet stream disturbance that may cross our sky at the same time the storm passes to our south. That could cause an expansion of snow showers north of the storm into parts of southern New England, so we’ll watch that for Tuesday of next week.
Otherwise, the big theme of next week is January chill for the entire stretch. We haven’t seen a whole week of near or slightly cooler than normal weather in quite some time, so even that distinction alone is enough to make it noteworthy in our exclusive First Alert 10-day forecast.
