Snow north, rain south

For all you NH teachers south of Manchester, sorry to say that you are going to have to go to work tomorrow.

Rest of today:  Showers tapering off, otherwise mainly cloudy, highs near 50 south, 40s north.

Tonight:  Cloudy with rain and snow developing late.  Inside of 495 will be nearly all rain, between 495 and Manchester, NH, a mix of rain and snow, north of Manchester will see all snow.  Lows in the low to mid 30s south, upper 20s to near 30 north.

Tomorrow:  Periods of rain south, rain/snow mix in Northern MA and Southern New England and all snow north of Manchester, highs steady in the low to mid 30s south, upper 20s north.

Tomorrow night:  Rain and snow comes to end aside for some localized snow showers in the mountains of NH.  Total accumulations of around an inch in Southern NH, 2-5 between Manchester and Concord and then 5-9 inches north of Concord, highest amounts at higher elevations.

Saturday:  Partly sunny, breezy,  a few snow showers in the mountains, highs near 40 south, 30s north.

Discussion:

A low pressure system is quickly organizing across the Central United States today.  This will race eastward toward New England tonight.  It will tap into a decent amount of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and a limited amount of cold air in Canada to produce a wintry mix for New England tonight and tomorrow.

We had a few showers pushed through today and now we wait for the main action to arrive tonight.  I expect the precipitation to hold off until the early morning hours on Friday.  Most areas will be in the snow, rain/snow mix, or rain by 7 AM.  Temperatures will pretty much remain steady from the morning lows, maybe bumping up a few degrees here or there.  Rain and snow will continue off and on throughout the day.  Not expecting much of any accumulation south of Manchester, NH as the precipitation will be light and temperatures will generally be above freezing causing mixing with rain.  The places will see the highest snow totals from this event will be northern areas and locations above 1000 feet in elevation.  So this will mainly be a skiers delight and take a bit of strain off of snow making for the ski resorts for a couple of days.

I expect some snow showers to continue in the mountains on Saturday, adding another inch or two in spots.  In general, conditions will dry up quickly else where thanks to a strong West-Northwest wind ushering in cold, dry air from Canada.  The chill won't last long as temperatures will be back up above normal early next week.

Thanks for reading!

-Jon K.