The drought in Southern New England may soon be a thing of the past as another storm system threatens with moderate to heavy rain this weekend. It comes on the heels of the storm early in the week that brought 1-4″ of rain to Southern New England.
The track of the Friday night through Saturday storm will be east of the storm earlier this week, but it may not lock in enough cold air for snow. The best chance of seeing snow is in western New England in the second half of the storm Saturday afternoon/night. At this point, it’s too soon to speculate about the specifics since the storm is just now forming in Texas and a wide range of solutions are still possible. Right now, it looks like a mainly/all rain event for Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts, and a close call for rain to snow in western Connecticut. Another 1-2″ of rain is possible.
The forecast for the weekend has been trending a bit colder in the last 24 hours, so that’s something to keep an eye on. If the storm trends too far east and offshore, it will not bring a lot of heavy precipitation. If it trends east, but not completely offshore, it could bring a wintry mix to Southern New England with heavy rain near the coast and heavy snow inland.
It will likely be windy on Saturday and Sunday, but it does not look quite as windy as it was earlier this week. Gusts over 40 mph are possible near the coast on Saturday, and widespread gusts over 30 mph are possible on Sunday as colder air wraps around the departing storm.
Dry weather is likely early next week. An Alberta Clipper could bring a few midweek rain/snow showers. Another storm moving out of the Southeastern United States is possible by late next week. The pattern does not feature a lot of Arctic air, but a storm tracking off the coast would probably have enough cold air to work with for at least a partial snow event.
The temperature will likely be near to slightly below normal through next Sunday, and then slightly above normal in the following week. Precipitation looks near normal in the next two weeks.
