Windy and bitter cold conditions are going to continue through Wednesday as the storm system that brought over a foot of snow to parts of Connecticut and a significant storm to Cape Cod — sparing the Boston area — is now well into the Atlantic Ocean. If you look in the upper right on the satellite loop below, you can see our storm now in the easternmost Canada.
Temperatures will struggle toward freezing Wednesday afternoon, making it one of the colder days of the winter in which we have not experienced many cold days. Wind chills will make it feel even colder, into the 20s and teens. Readings Wednesday night will fall back down into the 20s. Thursday starts with sunshine but ends up cloudy as another weak storm system approaches Thursday night.
Thursday night’s system is what we call a “clipper,” so-named because these storms move quickly from central Canada across New England before shooting out to sea. Sometimes these clipper systems can intensify into a big storm off the coast but this is not the case with this particular little one. It will, however, bring a period of snow Thursday night into early Friday, with the snow arriving after 9 p.m. and exiting the region well before sunrise. You’ll probably have to sweep away a coating to an inch or two of snow but that’s it.
It’s another breezy and chilly day on Friday with sunshine returning and temperatures in the mid to upper 30s. It will feel colder with the wind. Another weak system will produce a few snow or even rain showers on Saturday, with temperatures climbing back into the 30s.
Sunday and Monday (President’s Day) will feature sunshine with similar temperatures and a bit of a breeze. We will see a moderating trend for the middle of next week and it does look dry.
With school vacation next week, the weather is going to cooperate. Backyard ponds may not be sufficiently frozen and certainly I would stay off of natural bodies of water covered in ice.
Ski country does have snow and the temperatures will be really conducive to some great skiing next week. Notice on the map below the swath of snow from Tuesday’s storm and the gap in the middle where snowfall has been most limited. It is unusual to see bare ground in parts of Vermont, western Massachusetts and New York as well as New Hampshire and Maine this time of year.
Beyond that, I still don’t see any Arctic outbreaks in the foreseeable future and we could end up heading into March without any super cold days. This could mean an early bloom season this year if the mild weather continues into March.
