Chilly, Generally Unsettled Weather Continues for New England Into This Weekend

A large upper-level low pressure system continues to sit around Canada's Hudson Bay. This will continue to rotate shortwaves through New England over the next couple days. Two distinct clipper-like systems will slowly push through New England over the next two days, bringing continued snow showers across the north and the potential for flurries in central and southern New England.

Snow showers will be most widespread this morning and this evening, with much more isolated and spotty activity at other times through Thursday. These systems will be battling a dry column of air over New England, which will make anything more than light snow showers and flurries difficult to achieve. Through Thursday, an additional 1-3 inches of snow may fall across northern Vermont and New Hampshire, adding to the recent snowfall since Monday evening. Elsewhere, anything more than spot flurries will be difficult to achieve.

Below: Probability of seeing at least 1 inch of snow through Thursday night:

While a cold pool of air aloft will remain over New England with broad cyclonic flow in place, temperatures will begin to moderate after the coldest day of the week yesterday. With broad troughing overhead and subtle systems allowing for continued cold air advection, it will stay persistently chilly, with below average temperatures through the week and weekend (with a bump for some on Sunday with a storm system). Highs will continue to hang around the 30s north to 40s south.

On top of the cold temperatures and unsettled weather, it will be persistently gusty as well. A well-mixed atmosphere, broad cyclonic flow and strong cold air advection will result in persistently blustery conditions through much of the week. Tuesday was the windiest day of this week, but the breeze will remain elevated. This breeze will continue to add an extra bite to the air with the cold ambient temperature.

Heading into this weekend, New England's next more organized and widespread system will likely approach. After a brief ridge of surface high pressure Friday and Saturday, an area of low pressure will dig into the Great Lakes and move toward New England around Saturday night through Sunday. This system looks to move north and west of New England, making it an inside runner, potentially pulling milder air in from the southwest.

Current trends are continuing to point toward a later development occurring around Downeast Maine for a potential coastal low. If this occurs, it would be too late to lock in cold air at the surface for the duration of the storm. This would allow for the potential of a widespread wintry mix at the start early Sunday before a rain/snow quickly advances north during the day as milder air gets pushed into New England. At this point, southern New England looks to be mainly rain with the rain/snow line across interior northern New England.

Given the current setup for the remainder of this week, there will likely be plenty of cold air at the surface when precipitation begins to arrive early Sunday morning. This will come as the system lifts its warm front across New England, allowing warmer air to ride over the colder air at the surface. This is a prime setup for a rather messy storm across northern New England with mixed winter precipitation possible. At this point, a period of freezing rain is possible for a swath of northern New England.

This would likely switch to plain rain as the milder air eventually makes it to the surface. Northernmost New England, particularly northern Maine, is currently more favored to see snow. Overall, New England is primed to see a widespread half inch of accumulation. This would be pretty much all rain for southern and central New England, with some of this coming down as frozen precipitation across the north.

Below: Current probability of impactful winter weather Sunday: