Messy Midweek Storm
After a taste of Spring this weekend, our temperatures are slowly sliding back down on this rollercoaster of a ride we call New England weather. We start off the week with a pretty typical February day today – our highs will still manage to come into the 40s this afternoon under a good amount of sunshine and fairly light wind.
An onshore wind and increasing clouds tomorrow will result in cooler conditions; highs will top out in the mid 30s and there may be a flurry or two floating around.
And then, things get a bit more interesting…
Part 1 of our midweek storm system arrives tomorrow night. As a warm front approaches the south coast, a brief burst of snow will mix with and change to sleet and freezing rain across the interior. Not much snow will accumulate, but a coating to an inch of snow is possible mainly outside of 495. Some of the wintry mix will linger into early Wednesday too, so don't be surprised if there are slippery spots in those areas for your morning commute. Elsewhere it's just plain rain with some scattered showers lingering over the region Wednesday afternoon.
Part 2 arrives Wednesday night into Thursday. Low pressure will track to our west, putting us on the warmer side of the storm this time around. Expect areas of rain to redevelop and expand across New England Wednesday night, with downpours and even some embedded thunder possible into Thursday morning. Localized urban flooding and street flooding is likely where the heaviest rain pushes through. Rain will taper in intensity and coverage on Thursday.
Along with the rain comes the threat for damaging wind. Gusts from pre-dawn Thursday until midday could exceed 50 mph from the southeast then south respectively, causing isolated pockets of damage and outages. The wind will still be gusty, but not damaging, through the remainder of Thursday afternoon/evening. That wind also drags in warm air. Our highs will likely fall just a few degrees shy of the record highs on Thursday (65, 1930).
Coastal flooding isn't a big concern; aside from some pockets of minor splashover along the south coast, (mainly in RI during the Thursday morning high tide cycle) our shoreline should be unscathed.
-Danielle