Welcome to March 1st and the first day of what we consider Meteorological Spring (Equinox isn’t until March 20th this year).
Some way to start off the month huh? Temps this morning run in the single digits above and below 0 outside the city as clear skies and light winds overnight set up the frigid conditions. Despite the cold start we’ll warm up nicely by this afternoon with highs in the lower 30s and clouds increasing from the west. Overall, not a bad day to take the kids out skiing or sledding. Also, tonight we won’t be nearly as cold as last night, with temperatures holding in the 20s.
Sunday features mainly cloudy skies and patchy light snow as a cold front moves through from our northwest. There won’t be a lot of snow, but a coating to an inch is possible in spots. That front slides south of us tomorrow evening, and where it stalls is important to our Sunday night and Monday forecast.
Not only are we tracking that front, but we also need to track a storm crashing into the west coast this morning. Moisture and energy from that storm move east fast, providing plenty of moisture for snow from the Rockies to the East Coast. The heaviest snow, thanks to the greatest instability will be along and just north of the front that stalls to our south Monday as that front will have a massive temperature gradient from the 10s and 20s to the north to the 50s and 60s to the south.
The trend the last couple days has been to move that front just far enough south, that southern New England misses the brunt of the snow with the greatest chance of totals near a foot reserved for PA/NJ and parts of the mid-Atlantic. While we don’t see the “jackpot” totals, we will still see some snow overnight Sunday and Monday. It won’t take much snow to create slick spots Monday morning, and a general 1-3″ from Boston to Worcester will do the trick. Higher totals are possible across southeast Mass, where up to 6″ could fall in Buzzards Bay/Cape and Islands. Snow there will linger into the evening hours. For towns along and north of the Pike, most of the snow ends after the morning.
I know a lot of folks out there are weary of more winter weather and more snow days for the kids, so the trend the last day or two has been encouraging. With that said, it’s a tricky set-up and with this system a northward trend would bring back some higher totals, although, that’s not the most likely scenario as of now. We’ll continue to keep you updated all weekend.
For the rest of the week… cold weather rules as highs run in the 20s and 30s, well below the averages for the time of year.
Have a great weekend!