Snow is coming down on Massachusetts this Monday morning. While it might snarl evening commutes, it might not result in the kind of snow people can shovel or sled on, GBH Meteorologist Dave Epstein said.
“We've got a pretty complicated forecast here,” Epstein told Morning Edition co-hosts Paris Alston and Jeremy Siegel. “It's an interesting, evolving situation with low pressure off the New Jersey coast that's going to become stronger.”
On Sunday night, Northern New England got some snow — a few inches near Route 2 into New Hampshire, and 4 to 8 inches in parts of Maine. The Boston area was mostly spared, with a coating that turned into rain.
This afternoon, the system will grow a bit and form what meteorologists sometimes call a “comma head,” Epstein said. Picture a storm in the shape of a comma, with a round section that bears the heaviest snow and a smaller tail comprising most of the cold front.
“That comma head is going to rotate down over Greater Boston,” Epstein said. “We're in a lull right now with the heaviest precipitation sort of done. And now we kind of wait for that growing area of precipitation here later on this morning and into the afternoon.”
Rain will change to snow late morning to early afternoon. I am expecting a very slow evening commute with moderate to heavy snow for a few hours post-changeover. Not a big storm, but bad timing and it comes quickly. @jersiegel @BonjourParis_ pic.twitter.com/36EMgeXmwu
— Dave Epstein (@growingwisdom) January 23, 2023
Rain will arrive late Monday morning, and turn into snow around 1 or 2 p.m. in Boston, Epstein said.
“I think between 3 and 6 p.m., that's the window when we will see snow coming down quite hard,” he said. “As folks are heading home, it could be snowing at rates that are one inch an hour. So at the very least, it's going to lower visibility quite a bit.”
Temperatures this evening will hover right above freezing, Epstein said: 34 or 33, possibly going down to 32.
“I do think it's going to stick on the grass, I think it'll stick on car tops, things like that,” Epstein said. “Whether it sticks on, you know, Route 93 headed out of the tunnels this afternoon — it's going to be marginal. It may or may not.”
The roads may accumulate some slush, especially west of the city, Epstein said.
“I don't know how much shoveling we're going to do around Greater Boston, but as you get back to the west with 1 to 3 inches predicted, I would say that everything's going to be done between about 7 and 8 p.m.,” Epstein said. “I'd also say, good idea to clean up the slush. We're not going into a massive freeze, but tomorrow morning will be below freezing, about 27, 28 in the city. So if there is any residual moisture that is going to freeze.”
Tuesday should be sunnier, with highs in the 40s. The next system will roll through the region on Wednesday, with clouds in the morning, and more snow in the afternoon, starting between 2 and 5 p.m., followed by rain.
“It could be a coating to an inch or two down before that changes over to rain,” Epstein said. “Right now, it looks like we definitely change over to rain with the winds coming in off the water. Temperatures will be going up. It's also going to be a little windier with this particular system, but we will have to keep an eye on it because if that snow lasts a little longer, we could be looking at several inches of snow Wednesday night.”
