Winter Storm Details

Our wild January continues. After several days of above average temperatures, cold air is currently working its way back into New England. It should be no surprise that the arrival of that cold air will coincide with a potent coastal storm, poised to bring us some significant snowfall.

A low pressure system currently over the upper Midwest will carve a path to the mid- Atlantic before moving off shore and passing to the southeast of New England. As is typical with these storms, rapid strengthening will occur once the system hits the water.

The storms exact path, through not set in stone, looks to take a similar path to the January 6th storm that gave most of eastern Massachusetts a fluffy 10-15 inches of snow.  This system doesn't look like it will have as much moisture associated with it, dropping a general 0.35-0.5 inches of precipitation. Once again, surface temps will be quite cold which means our snow to liquid ratio will be on the order of 15:1.

A blizzard watch is currently up for Cape Cod and the extreme southeast portion of Massachusetts. These areas will experience the highest snowfall totals (with some ocean enhancement) as well as winds gusting from 20-40 mph. As such, blizzard criteria will likely be met somewhere in this zone.

All of the major cities along the East Coast will be affected by this system. Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York will receive a good 4-8 inches before all is said and done. As such, you can imagine that travel up and down the coast tomorrow will be heavily impacted.

Snowfall will start towards the end of the evening commute tomorrow night, around 6 or 7 PM.  This storm will be a progressive system, much like the January 6th event. Heaviest snowfall will occur overnight with all precipitation clearing the region by mid morning on Wednesday. The timing of the storm will likely cause many school closings and delays. Behind the departing storm, bitter temperatures and a stiff wind will cause lots of blowing snow and dangerous wind chill values. Here are my expected totals below. Tweet me or message me with any questions!

Update on Snowstorm

Complex and powerful nor'easter will impact the area over the next 24 hours. Unique set up with extremely cold surface temperatures and a persistant NE wind direction over the warm ocean created  strong ocean effect snow bands over Essex and eastern Middlesex counties earlier. Some areas already reported 20 inches of accumulation! The area of best ocean effect banding is now over Plymouth county.


Main storm center has formed off the Mid-Atlantic coast and will rapidly intensify as it moves to the north east. This will be a relatively progressive storm and the track will keep the heaviest effects offshore. Nevertheless, the extremely cold temperatures will create impressive snowfall ratios, on the order of 15:1 or above. Anywhere from 0.4 to 1 inch of precipitation will fall, resulting in widespread 14-18 inch snowfall totals with 24+ inches likely in areas of heavy ocean effect banding. Extreme temperature gradient between the surface and the ocean combined with the northeast wind direction will result in strong ocean effect banding.


Winds from the northeast will increase later, gusting to 45 mph in coastal areas and from 15-25 mph everywhere else. Coastal flooding concerns for coastal Essex county and along the South Shore, specifically with the Friday noon high tide. Light nature of the snow will make it easy for wind driven snow to create blizzard conditions.


Most snow should be over by the early afternoon on Friday. Behind it, extremely cold air will rush into all of New England. Friday night and Saturday morning lows are likely to shatter records all around the area. Much of Massachusetts will be several degrees below 0, even in metro areas such as Boston. Breezy NW winds will create wind chill values of -25 and below! This type of cold is life threatening as hypothermia can set in quickly. No doubt, this will be one of the coldest air masses that New England has seen in decades.


Temperatures will moderate on the weekend. Another system will approach the region late Sunday into Monday. A storm track to the west will keep us on the warm and rainy side of the event. Some freezing rain is definitely a possibility for interior areas, especially at the onset of the storm.