Coastal Storm to Bring Snow and Bitter Cold

Mackenzie contemplating new snowfall (2010)
No, we will not be waking up to scenes like this tomorrow!

There’s nothing quite like waking up to a “Blizzard/Storm Coordination Message” from the regional Skywarn office in Taunton. Forget breakfast, there is weather to anticipate! Of course, this is one of those situations where location is everything, and unless you pay attention to local news only, you may end up with an incredibly distorted picture of what is coming our way. Blizzard warnings are now up for portions of Southeast Coastal Massachusetts, specifically Eastern and Southern Plymouth County and Cape Cod and the Islands from 7 PM Tuesday evening through 1 PM Wednesday afternoon. These coastal areas are looking at 8-14 inches of snow, sustained winds of 20-30 MPH with gusts to 50 MPH, and potentially isolated higher wind gusts at the height of the storm with blizzard conditions. But we are not going to see conditions anything like that here across most of Western Massachusetts. Still, this storm does seem to be hugging closer to the coast than computer models were predicting last week and yesterday, so even though this storm’s impact diminishes significantly from east to west and points north, we are now in the zone for some significant snowfall. Bottom line:

• A Winter Storm Warning is now in effect from 1 PM Tuesday afternoon to 1 PM Wednesday afternoon for Eastern Hampshire and Eastern Hampden Counties for 4-8 inches of snow and wind gusts up to 30 MPH.
• A Winter Weather Advisory is now in effect for Franklin, Western Hampden and Western Hampshire Counties of Massachusetts for 4-6" of snow and wind gusts to 20 MPH.

And even more intense than any snowfall, it’s going to be COLD. A Wind Chill Advisory is now in effect from 10 PM Tuesday night to 10 AM Wednesday morning for Franklin, Hampshire, Hampden, Worcester, Central and Northern Middlesex Counties of Massachusetts and Tolland and Windham Counties of Connecticut and Cheshire and West-Central Hillsborough Counties of Southern New Hampshire for wind chill readings between -15 and -24 degrees below zero. Areas outside of the Wind Chill Advisory will also be bitterly cold with wind chill readings below zero over portions of tonight and Wednesday morning.

The good news is that the extreme cold will mean lighter and fluffier snow, with conditions similar to what was experienced during the storm of early January 2014. Isolated pockets of tree and wire damage and isolated power outages will be possible along the Southeast Massachusetts coast line and Cape Cod and the Islands but the extent of any damage from a wind perspective is expected to be fairly minimal. Still, be prepared and stay warm out there!