It sure doesn’t feel like spring lately in New England, with unseasonable temperatures remaining in the 40’s and 50’s for the past several days. With a ridge of warm air from the south continuing to hold us, we can expect this kind of weather in the coming weekend and into early next week.

Highs today will surpass 50 in many locations, meaning some beautiful weather but some significant snowmelt across the northeast. This will be troublesome for many of the mountain resorts, as the overnight temperatures have been trending above freezing as of late, meaning no addition to the snowpack we will rapidly lose due to this warmer weather.

Courtesy of Tropical Tidbits

In addition, we can expect some rain to be arriving in our neck of the woods in the near future. On Friday afternoon, a warm front will move through as an impending low pressure system approaches the northeast, inducing some rain showers, mostly in central and northern New England.

This large system will make its way up the coast on Friday into Saturday, during which we will have a brief warm up due to the advancement of the warm front ahead of this storm. This means more 50 degree temperatures on Saturday in many locations, and overnight lows in the mid to upper 30’s.

However, when the cold front on the back end of this storm makes its way through the region, a large bout of rain and a fairly significant drop in temperatures will occur compared to what we have seen this week. This will mean freezing temperatures overnight on Saturday, which could induce some significant icing on the mountains with such a drastic change from daytime temperatures, in addition to a half inch of rain. It appears that a band of snow will follow this system with the advancing cold air, in addition to the likeliness of icing. If you plan to hit the slopes this Sunday, be cautious of the change in conditions on the mountains as well as on the roads.

Courtesy of Tropical Tidbits

The remainder of next week currently looks to stay within the mid 40’s, with the overnight lows remaining below freezing for central and northern New England. Our next chance for precipitation comes during mid-week, where another system may drop some rain and potentially some snow, but the timing and placement of cold air is still variable.

Julia Moreland, Undergraduate Plymouth State University/New England Daily Snow