An incredibly intense storm will deliver a glancing blow to most of Southern New England as it passes by Tuesday night into Wednesday. The storm will undergo explosive development in the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday as it moves northeast from off the Southeastern United States coast. The center of the storm will pass well east of Nantucket Wednesday morning.
The overall snow forecast has not changed much, especially for Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket where blizzard conditions are likely. The National Weather Service has placed those areas in a Blizzard Watch. Bristol and Plymouth Counties in Massachusetts, and Newport County, RI are under a Winter Storm Watch. There will be plowable snow near Buzzards Bay, and a few inches are possible in Southeastern Rhode Island. It looks like most of the rest of RI and interior SE MA will escape with just an inch or two of snow. If the storm tracks closer to the coast than expected, then the steadier snow and strong winds will move west into interior SE MA and RI.
Snow should develop by late Tuesday evening, and it will continue through Wednesday morning. The snow will not be very heavy in RI or interior SE MA, but it will be moderate to heavy at times in coastal SE MA. The wind will increase to 20-30 mph with some 40+ mph gusts in RI, and 25-35 mph in coastal SE MA with gusts to 50 mph near Buzzards Bay, and 55-75 mph on Cape Cod and the islands. The temperature will fall into the 20s Tuesday night, and stay in the upper 20s to low 30s Wednesday morning.
The rapid intensification and track uncertainty of this storm make it a must-watch forecast through tomorrow. A shift east in the storm’s track will take RI and Boston out of the accumulating snow, and a shift west will bring a bigger impact to RI and the Boston area.
