Heavy snow coming Wednesday afternoon, followed by rain into Thursday

By Terry Eliasen, WBZ-TV Meteorologist, Executive Weather Producer

BOSTON – What’s that strange bright, glowing orb up in the sky today? Believe it or not, that is some actual sunshine!

January has been an “interesting” month. It seems as though we have only gotten a few glimpses of the sun, however temperatures have averaged more than 7 degrees above average per day (the fifth warmest January on record in Boston).

While our daytime highs have been fairly mild, including 5 days 50 degrees or higher, it has been the night time temperatures that have really tipped the scales. It simply has not been that cold at all!

The average night time low temperature this month so far has been 32.3 degrees. This, in what should be our coldest month of the year, and when typically our nights dip into the teens and 20s (if not lower).

Another way to look at it – Boston’s average low temperature right now is 22 degrees. Amazingly, the city has yet to actually get that low this month! The “coldest” temperature so far this month was 23 degrees on January 11. 

Despite all of that, Boston has managed to squeeze out 6.6 inches of snow this month and there is more where that come from!

The WBZ Weather Team will be issuing a NEXT Weather Alert, starting Tuesday evening, for a period of snow that’s starting Wednesday, followed by a change to rain Wednesday night.

TIMELINE

The snow begins Wednesday afternoon. It will be mainly light to start and then gradually fill in by late afternoon and early evening. 

The heaviest snow and most of the accumulation will occur between about 4 p.m. and 10 p.m.

We will be tracking a rain/snow changeover line Wednesday night. It will begin to rapidly push northward after 6 p.m., reaching Boston around 8-to-9 p.m. and the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border by midnight. After this occurs, it will be just plain rain the rest of the night. The rain will taper off before dawn on Thursday.

Just as the snow starts to pile up, the change to rain will occur. This will compress the snow quite a bit. It will completely wash the fresh snow away in some areas and create a mushy mess in others.

HOW MUCH

We are expect a coating to 1 inch of snow near the South Coast and down towards Plymouth and the Cape Cod Canal. This will be long gone by morning, washed away.

One-to-three inches is our forecast from Plymouth up the coast through Boston and much of the North Shore. Again, most of this will also be washed away by rain.

The highest totals from this storm, 3-to-6 inches, will be found north and west of Route 495, in parts of northern Middlesex County, Worcester County and southern New Hampshire. These areas will also get rain late Wednesday night and will wake up to a slushy mess Thursday. 

One more factor with this storm – the winds. Late Wednesday night there will be some very gusty south-southeast winds over portions of southeastern Mass., including the Cape and Islands. Gusts could briefly top 50 mph in this area, potentially leading to some scattered wind damage.

After the storm passes, Thursday will actually turn into a decent day. We will see highs near 50 degrees with a good deal of sunshine. Friday will be a quiet by colder day. The weekend also looks decent and dry. 

BUT, you knew that was coming, it looks like we will pick up next week where we left off as the active pattern is likely to continue for a while. There is a chance of rain or snow both Monday and sometime mid-week. At this point, neither of those storms look major, but we will keep an eye on things as they develop.