March is here, but spring-like weather is not right around the corner. It will be a wintry start to the month with a couple of storms bringing snow to Southern New England this weekend. The first storm is a quick-hitter Saturday morning with accumulating snow. The second storm brings more precipitation, but will likely have a mix/rain element to it for most of CT, RI, and SE MA.
As expected, light snow developed along the CT Shoreline Friday morning. It didn’t amount to much and moved out by mid-morning. Look for mostly cloudy afternoon skies with temps in the low to mid 30s. It will stay dry through the evening before a storm system moving off the Mid-Atlantic coast develops over the Atlantic Ocean and brings snow back after midnight. Look for a snowy start on Saturday. The track is a bit closer to the coast, and that means Connecticut gets in on the snow fun Saturday morning. One issue with snow accumulation is the potential for sleet to mix in along the CT Shoreline and in the southern half of RI and SE MA. This looks like a widespread 3-4″ event, although slightly higher or lower totals are still possible.
The timing of the storm is from late at night (2-4 am) until late morning in CT and around midday in RI. It may linger into the mid-afternoon in far eastern MA. Flurries could stick around for a few hours after the accumulating snow is done. Temps will likely reach the mid 30s Saturday afternoon.
The next storm arrives early Sunday evening and continues into early Monday. It should be out of the picture between about 7-10 am from west to east. The trend is a bit colder with that storm and my threat map reflects that. I think there’s a decent chance of some snow accumulation in most of CT, RI, and E MA before rain gets involved. If you have plans Sunday evening, you will likely be dealing with snowy travel by 8 pm. A change to rain is still likely near the coast later Sunday night. That will limit snow totals by quite a bit if it happens. I will post a snow forecast map for the Sunday night storm either later this evening or tomorrow morning, depending on how confident I am in the forecast.
I will likely have another forecast update later today.
