The NECN Weather Team wishes you all a very happy and safe New Year! We thank you so much for your loyal support and interest in New England weather. We are very excited for big changes at NECN in 2015. We will be delivering you the news and the weather with brand new studio, with new graphics in the effort to better serve you and our communities! Thank you for sticking with us in our growing pains the past few months. We promise 2015 will be the dawning of new age for NECN! We can not wait to bring it to you!
Now on to the weather! Obviously, the cold has returned to the pattern. Now where is the snow? It is the question I have been asked a lot lately. With less than an inch of snow in Boston, Providence and Hartford for the month of December..this has indeed been a snow-less month. Let's see if we can turn that around for all the snow-geese out there! Honk Honk!
We are watching the jetstream in this quiet, and cold pattern this week. Our weather is currently being controlled by the polar jet stream which has directed the return of winter-like air back into the nation after a milder December. It will likely go down as one of the warmest Decembers for the United States dating back all the way to 1960. We are watching a piece of energy back in the desert southwest which is creating snow in the higher elevations of S. CA, AZ, and New Mexico! This will eject eastward and eventually be directed towards the Northeast for the weekend. It will come with warming temperatures from the south. So even though precipitation may start as snow, a change to rain is expected.
High pressure will sit over us Saturday giving us sunshine and cold dry conditions through the daylight hours. Meanwhile, This weekend we will be watching a strong low being directed up towards the Great Lakes. This will track west of New England which is usually not favorable for much in the way of snow. The cold dome of air in place left over from the HIGH, along with the arrival of precipitation into New England late Saturday night, means there is a good probability we are looking at snow developing late Saturday night on the front end.
There is the potential for several inches of snow to fall from 12 AM Saturday-6 AM Sunday morning as much of Northern and central New England will remain cold enough to support snow during those hours. It is this time where the heaviest of the precipitation will likely fall as well. During the predawn hours, warmer air aloft will continue to flood in along with SSW winds, so a snow/rain line will be advancing north. With a change to rain, and cold air still down at the ground...there is a concern for pockets of freezing rain in colder valleys before the eventually change to rain to rain Sunday morning. Areas around the 32 degree line in Northern New England will have a very snowy, icy start Sunday morning.
The tough part of this forecast is figuring out how much snow will fall on the front end of this before the change over to rain happens. Our Models have been showing more agreement and confidence is growing we could see several inches of snow fall during the early morning hours of Sunday while most of us are sleeping. These are early model estimates of where the heaviest snow will fall and how much may fall....but please understand that these numbers will change. Please stay tuned to NECN where will will give you our best estimate on how much snow to expect as we get closer to the weekend. Either way, these amounts look like a plowable snow for northern and Central New England in the 3-6" range. Even an inch or two may fall in Boston before the change over. This looks like a real sloppy mess at dawn Sunday.
The low will continue to lift NW of New England by Sunday afternoon with the rain tapering to showers. About a half an inch to 1" of moisture is in play. Heaviest rain will be in SE MA where up to 1" may fall. Temperatures will continue to warm into the 30's and 40's, but only for a brief time. Much colder air will quickly return for the start of next week with another shot of Arctic air! Plenty of cold in the pattern...but getting that "true" New England snow storm still remains a challenge! We will be here for you in 2015! See you then!
