One Storm To Rule Them All?

Posted by Pete Bouchard

"The board is set, the pieces are moving."

We're on the eve of what could be the biggest snowstorm in almost a decade.

We're drawing comparisons with the Blizzards of 2005 and 2003 (22.5" and 27.5" - greatest all time in Boston). Yes, that much snow will hammer the Commonwealth. Confidence is high, the models are jiving and you need to take this threat seriously.

With such a large, long duration storm, where do we get started? How about the timeline?

Startup: Early morning tomorrow. Pacing is intermittent and light. 2-4 by afternoon. There will likely be mixing - or even plain rain - along the South Shore much of SE Mass. including the Cape and Islands. This is where a lot of us will be standing around saying "what storm?"

Phase two of the storm will then engage after dark tomorrow evening. Heavy bands will erupt from our developing offshore nor'easter/blizzard and snowstorm "feeder bands" (these nor'easters are cousins of hurricanes...sharing some similar characteristics like wind and wave generation) will start wrapping back over New England.

As snowfall rates increase beyond the point where plows can keep up, roads are likely to become impassable near or after midnight Friday night into early Saturday morning. If you attempt to travel, it is possible you may become stranded. Don't be that person.

Snow will continue - intense and unyielding - through Saturday morning and into the late morning hours. Thereafter, we can emerge and start cleanup.

Things we're working on:

Who gets three feet?!? Tough call. In storms like this, the convective (Huh? Think t-storms) nature makes it impossible to tackle ahead of the event. When we're in it, we'll know. Keep in mind folks, there may be multiple sweet spots or bullseyes. That happened in the Blizzard of 2005.

The REAL endgame of the storm. We'll leave it at Saturday afternoon, but the last flakes may not fly until Saturday EVENING.

Cape Cod snowfall. Always a moving target. Mix/rain early Friday will cut down on amounts, but we'll really make hay when the storm cranks on Friday afternoon/Saturday AM.

More later.

Pete

Pulling The Fade

Posted by Chris Lambert

Our fun in the sun ends this afternoon as morning sunshine fades behind thickening clouds.  As those clouds increase, a few showers break out this afternoon from west to east, with the highest chance for rain late afternoon and this evening.  Most of the showers are light, especially the early afternoon ones, but a heavier shower or two is possible near day's end and early this evening.  Highs reach the mid to upper 60s around noon, then fall back to near 60 mid to late afternoon thanks to scattered showers.  These showers are brought to us by a warm front.

Back and Forth

Posted by Chris Lambert

Quite a few clouds in the sky at times this afternoon, but the atmosphere lacked ample moisture to produce showers, so we made out just fine with temps near 70.  Even the coast made it well into the 60s before the onshore wind knocked temps back.

Pretty Good Weekend Overall

Posted by Chris Lambert

Sure, it's a cool start with many of the suburbs down into the upper 30s and lower 40s, but we'll warm up quickly through the day as that sun helps us out.

Strong Finish

Posted by Chris Lambert

An overall cooler day, but also a great end to the workweek as highs neared 70, low humidity continued and plenty of sunshine dominated the skies.  Now all we need is this to continue through the weekend right?