It's the last Friday night of 2017, and we're bracing for yet another night with temperatures in the single digits or sub-zero, but that does not include the wind chill. Wind chills through Saturday morning will range from 20 below along the Canadian border to 5 to 10 below for most of Northern New England and around 0 to 5 below for southern New England.
Not only are we tracking the bitter cold, but we're also tracking some snow showers for our Saturday, enough to make for slick travel for parts of southern New England. A winter weather advisory has been issued for Cape Cod and the Islands from noon Saturday to early Sunday morning. Snow showers will spread from west to east by the afternoon hours for southern New England as this system clips our area. By 6 p.m. Saturday, the heaviest of snow showers will be over the Cape and Islands.
On the back side of the system, it's likely we'll see ocean-effect snow showers on the outer Cape and Islands, so we could see locally higher amounts under some of these ocean-enhanced snow bands. Between 2-4" of snow is expected for coastal southeastern Massachusetts, the Cape and the Islands with 3-6" possible for Outer Cape, 1-2" for coastal Rhode Island and Connecticut, while a dusting to an inch is expected elsewhere along and south of the Massachusetts Turnpike.
The system exits just in time for the second half of the holiday weekend, but that's when we're in for another arctic cold blast. Planning on going to the Patriots game Sunday afternoon? Wear plenty of layers! Temperatures will be in the teens by the 1 p.m. kickoff, and we'll have a brisk breeze out of the northwest nearing 20 mph, making for wind chills in the lower single digits.
For New Year's Eve Day, get ready for bitterly cold conditions with highs in the 10s, and lows getting close to zero as we countdown to midnight. Highs remain between 10-15 degrees to start off the first couple days of 2018. Back to the mid to upper 20s by the middle of the week before another round of highs into the teens for late next week into the first half of the first full weekend of 2018. The next chance for accumulating snowfall looks to be late Thursday into Friday, so we'll be keeping an eye on that system as we get closer.
For now, enjoy the last few days of 2017 and bundle up as we countdown to 2018! Wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year.
