A nuisance storm will coincide with the Wednesday morning commute in Southern New England. It should not be enough to cause major problems, but travel will likely be slowed inland as snow accumulates. Closer to the coast, a transition from snow to rain will be occurring during the commute. The areas most likely to be impacted by wintry travel conditions are north and west of the I-95 corridor. The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for many inland locations in Southern New England
Snow and rain will develop around midnight and continue overnight into Wednesday. A change from any mixed precipitation to snow at the start of the storm is likely for all those except at the immediate coast, where it will likely be a mainly rain event. The steadiest snow will occur late Tuesday night through mid-morning Wednesday. The transition from rain to snow will occur from the coast to inland locations, with most spots south of the MA Pike seeing either mixed precipitation or rain by mid to late morning. The steadiest precipitation should end by late in the morning, and it will stay chilly and damp Wednesday afternoon. The temperature will hold in the low to mid 30s. Skies will gradually clear Wednesday night, and the temperature will fall below freezing leading to some icy untreated surfaces early Thursday.
Snow Forecast
This will be a light to moderate inland snowfall. Interior CT and central MA will likely see the highest totals, with some isolated 5-6″ amounts possible. The far NW corner of RI could see 3-4″ of snow, but most of RI and SE MA will see less than 3″, with the Providence and Boston picking up less than 2″ before a change to rain. Closer to the coast, a minor accumulation is possible before the change to rain. It should be mainly or all rain with no accumulation on Cape Cod and the islands.
Snow Odds for Providence
While it is likely that some of the precipitation for Providence will be snow, there is also a very high likelihood that there will be some rain by the midway point of the event. As a result, Providence has a reasonably high probability of at least 1″ of snow, but there is not a very high probability of seeing more than 2″ of snow, and the odds of anything more than 3″ are very low. In short, this does not have any blockbuster (or even moderate snowstorm) potential for Providence. The odds favor it not even being plowable.
Although Providence is in the 1-3″ range on the map, it is at the southern edge of this range. As a result, the greatest likelihood is that Providence’s final snow total is within 1″ of 1.5″ – basically, a very minor event.
In the long term, the weather looks fairly quiet on Thursday, with a cold shot likely late Thursday night into Friday. The temperature will moderate back into the 30s this weekend, before more cold weather arrives Sunday afternoon. It looks very cold at the start of next week, with the chance of some snow by Tuesday.