In the Washington D.C. area they are calling this storm snowquester as heavy snow hits that area today and tonight. In the Boston area and especially along the coast we are looking at more than just a potential heavy snow event. Coastal sections, already beaten up from several storms this winter and the impacts from “Sandy” will take another significant hit from this storm as flooding is a major concern once again. This storm still has the potential to bring heavy wet snow inland, a mix of precipitation that may change to heavy snow on the immediate coast, strong gusty and potentially damaging winds and scattered power outages to go along with the coastal impacts.
Low pressure will move southeast of New England Thursday into Friday. This is going to be a slow mover and therefore we can expect impacts from this system to linger into Friday, lasting up to 48 hours. The National Weather Service has issued both a Winter Storm Watch and Coastal Flood Warning for our area.
The Winter Storm Watch is in effect from early Thursday morning into Friday morning. The National Weather Service is indicating a general snowfall of 4 to 8 inches in the watch area, which includes our forecast area. The Coastal Flood Warning will be in effect from 5 am Thursday to 10 am Friday. This will cover three high tide cycles, Thursday about 7 am, Friday about 8 am and Thursday evening near 7 pm. The two morning high tides are the ones officials are most concerned with due to the higher astronomical tides. Seas offshore are forecast to be 25 to 30 feet, with the storm surge on the coast at 2.5 to 3 feet.
Here are the details: Today, rain showers near the coast and snow showers inland will be off and on throughout the day. This is no big deal and certainly there will be no accumulation where it does snow. Temperatures will simply be too warm in the upper 30s to 40 degrees. East to northeast winds will gust to 30 mph or higher.
Tonight the action slowly picks up as the showery activity will become more steady after midnight. Most areas should be all snow but the coast may continue to see a mix of rain and snow for a while. Temperatures will not move very much, falling to the low 30s inland and mid 30s on the coast. Northeast winds increase and are expected to gust to over 40 mph on the coast.
Thursday and Thursday night: If this storm is going to ramp up and dump on us this will be the timeframe in which it does so. Expect the precipitation to pick up in intensity around the morning rush and continue throughout the day. Accept for the immediate coast, where rain could still mix in at times, the remainder of the local area should have a steady snowfall into the overnight. Temperatures remaining near steady, with strong and gusty northeast winds continuing as gusts to over 40 mph are expected.
Friday should see the storm impacts beginning to lose its grip as the day goes along, but that is not to say we are completely out of the woods. Another burst of snow could come through in the morning, still that morning high tide to contend with and impacts on travel.
Snow accumulations: The thinking here is 2 to 4 inches along the immediate coast due to rain mixing in at times. Just a few miles inland to the Route 95/128 area accumulations increase to 4 to 8 inches and along the Route 495 belt upwards of near a foot could be realized before all is said and done on Friday. This is going to be a heavy wet snow and difficult to move.
As always please stay tuned to local news and weather outlets or check in on our Twitter feed for updates. Thank you and be careful during the storm. https://twitter.com/NorthShore_Wx
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