Boston to see freezing temperatures, chance of first snow in coming week

Boston may see its first of the winter season in the coming week, as temperatures drop well below normal, according to National Weather Service forecasts.

“What we’re looking at this week, we’re in this pattern that’s going to be favoring below normal temperatures, which is a bit of a switch off, considering we had a pretty warm fall,” said NWS meteorologist Caitlyn Mensch. “So for pretty much all this week, we do expect temperatures to be below normal.”

Boston may see the first snow of the season Wednesday night into Thursday, after a fairly dry start to the week, according to NWS forecasts. The snow is expected to mix with rain and not result much accumulation in the Boston area.

Some areas of Massachusetts further west inland and in higher elevation areas including the Berkshires saw their first snow on Thanksgiving day.

“This little event on Wednesday night to Thursday is pretty minor,” Mensch said. “We’ll see probably accumulation ranges in that one to four inch range, and really most of that higher  accumulation is going to be those higher elevation areas like the Berkshires or even Worcester Hills.”

Any “very light” accumulation Boston sees will likely not stick around long, Mensch added.

Most areas around the Boston area will remain dry Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday day, Mensch said, though there may be “ocean effect showers” that could hit the Cape and islands.

High temperatures are forecasted to remain well below seasonal averages, ranging from the high 30s to low 40s throughout the week. The average high temperature for Boston this time of year is around the mid-40s, Mensch said.

Low temperatures are expected to dip below freezing through the early week, reaching the low 20s through Thursday night, NWS forecasts.

“But the big thing is really going into Friday and into the weekend,” Mensch said. “After that system pushes through on Thursday, we get a push of even colder air, what we can call more ‘arctic air.’”

Temperatures Friday and Saturday are forecasted to reach highs in the lower 30s and below 20 degrees.

“It’s definitely very, very cold for the city having high temperatures in the 30s, sitting about 10 degrees, or even a little more, below normal,” said Mensch.