FIRST MAJOR WINTER STORM ON THE WAY FOR MLK DAY

Our first significant winter storm is on its way for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It is looking more and more likely that this storm will be bringing lots of winter precipitation to a wide area of New England, including SNE. In fact "northern" SNE and "southern" Central New England may see the jackpot out of this storm, which will likely be Winter Storm Warning criteria type snows. This map is the preliminary snowfall accumulation map. In the green on the Cape, they will see mostly rain, but even they will likely turn to snow at the very end of the storm. Far north into Ski Country of Northern New England, precipitation will be lighter with perhaps a good accumulation of about a few inches. South of the Pike, in the pink area, there will be a rain/sleet situation transitioning over to snow. North of the Pike and south of Route 2, there will be more in the way of snow with perhaps a few to several inches. We will have to wait and see how this pans out. In the darker blue area, the storm will be mostly if not all snow. This is where the heaviest precipitation will be, so this area will have the heaviest snow. I would say that southern NH will have the heaviest snow accumulation. Right now, a solid six inches or more is possible. I will make a more detailed map, with numbers as we get closer to this upcoming storm, but the target day is Monday and it could carry on into the Tuesday morning commute with perhaps lots of snow and slick roads to cause delays.

One thing to mention is that when I mean that a wintry mix will be around, especially Sunday night north of the Pike, I mean we will see sleet and perhaps worst of all freezing rain which could reek havoc on the roadways and may cause power outages. Getting a slushy snow on top of it will only mask the ice accretion and we will have problems.

Whatever does fall Monday will stick around for a while as all of next week looks to be FRIGID as I have been advertising for a long time now. Highs on Tuesday will be chilly, mainly in the upper 20's. Wednesday may stay in the upper 10's to around 20 and we could be starting the morning here in SNE, around 0. Central and northern New England will likely be BELOW ZERO to begin the day Wednesday and the Frigid air will persist through the week.

This is our pattern change. Enjoy, I know I will.