2017 will end with a very cold and windy Sunday. A fresh coating to an inch of snow from Saturday will give the day a colder feel as the temperature struggles to reach the low to mid teens with wind chills around zero throughout the day. The wind chill will dip to below zero Sunday night to ring in 2018. The temperature will be in the single digits at midnight, and not far from zero at dawn on Monday. Expect subzero wind chills on New Year’s Day, even with sunshine. It will only reach the low to mid teens in the afternoon. Frigid weather continues on Tuesday as it stays dry.
Wednesday looks a bit “milder” with highs in the upper 20s to low 30s. It may actually reach freezing (32°) near the coast! Expect dry weather to continue on Wednesday.
I still think there’s a decent chance of snow/wind on Thursday into early Friday, and the European computer model is starting to come around to my line of thinking. After drifting the storm way into the Atlantic Ocean for a few runs, the latest ensembles bring it close enough for some snow in Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts. A look at the probability maps below show the odds of 3″ of snow increasing to more than 60% in most of the area, and the odds of 12″+ are up to about 25%. That shows the blockbuster potential if this storm comes close enough. It will likely be an intense system with strong winds, so the closer it comes, the more that becomes a factor, too.
At this point, I would not say a storm is imminent, but it’s a situation that definitely bears watching! After the storm departs (hit or miss) yet another surge of Arctic air arrives. If there is fresh snow on the ground, it could be the coldest air of what is already an incredibly cold stretch.
If you’ve had enough of the deep freeze, it looks like relief is on the way by mid January.
