A Cold Week with Rain and Snow.

It is cold this morning and it will remain chilly to cold for this time of year all week and into much of next week. The advertised warm-up by some forecasters keeps getting beaten back. There is a reason why I have not talked about it too much … I have my doubts on how extensive it will be.

Meanwhile we have a rain storm to talk about for tonight into tomorrow morning. There could be some wet snow flakes over higher terrain as the rain comes in tonight, but nothing to get too excited about it. The storm will be a relatively strung out area of low pressure until the northern branch of the jet comes in and captures it, then it deepens and provides NW half of New England with a nice snowfall.  No need to worry for us, as we stay all rain.
The rain will begin around 10 pm tonight and finish by 11 am tomorrow. There may e some lingering drizzle into the afternoon. It will be raw and chilly tomorrow also. Just not pleasant. 

The cold front pushes through later in the day, and ushers in some colder air. A few snow flurries are possible early Wed, before high pressure moves in from the west and gives us more sunshine. It will be cold with highs only in the 30’s and nighttime lows well down in the 20’s. This set the stage for our first real winter storm of the season.

This storm is a bit of a surprise. No forecaster was talking about until yesterday, so don’t let anyone claim they saw it coming … because they didn’t. It appeared that all the energy that is initiating our storm for tonight would head E/NE off the east coast. This was why I was concerned for a stronger storm tonight. That idea was incorrect, as it now seems that a large chunk of energy will be left behind in Texas and that it will then move E/NE creating a new low-pressure area with lots of moisture to work with.

Combine that with the high pressure moving to Maine, providing support for cold air in our area, you have the ingredients for a winter storm. Notice I wrote winter storm, not snowstorm. There are too many borderline issues regarding temperatures at the surface, aloft, and elevation that make this too early to say "snowstorm". It could be a cold rain storm, a rain/sleet storm, a wet snow/sleet storm, or a wet snowstorm. This storm is three days away, we have time to figure it out. 

Until next time, Enjoy.