Brief Warm Up Short Lived
All in all a quiet but cold period for the next few days. There are chances for light snow in the mountains and northern Maine off and on, and the coast may see some flurries Friday. An ocean storm moves up the eastern seaboard Saturday which appears to come near to the coast, and deserves to tracked closely.
Areas of the region that were able to thaw out from the wintry mix Tuesday into Wednesday may have to contend with black ice forming in spots overnight, and some slick spots may be around Thursday morning. Snow showers over the mountains and northern areas may add a few slick spots in those areas as well.
Temperatures start the day in the teens for most of the state, with single digits likely for the mountains up through Clayton Lake, and low 20s for the shorelines.
Snow showers appear to end for the mountains and northwestern areas by mid- to late morning.
Most of the region will deal with low level clouds as the atmosphere dries itself out from the moisture of the last storm. West / northwest winds may gust between 30-40 mph at times during the day will help that process. The breeze appears to slowly subside to the 5-15 mph speed overnight into Friday morning. The diminished wind appears short lived, however.
Snow Showers Possible For The Shorelines Friday
For anyone travelling to Boston, Providence & Cape Cod regions Friday are likely to see slow travel from plowable snow from this event. East / northeast winds will pick up along the coast as the storm passes to the east. Given the warm waters of the Gulf of Maine and cold air over the region, ocean effect snow showers are a possibility. The track at this point appears to be offshore enough where the plows and shovels can sit this one out, but I can’t rule out spotty sanding jobs in places where the squalls may drop a quick inch.
Looking at a country wide view at midday Friday, the race is on between high pressure moving eastward and low pressure heading for the southeast. A storm is predicted to form and bring snow and ice to Alabama, Georgia and the Carolina’s Saturday. How this race ends up will dictate what happens for the northeast on Sunday.
The storm that grazes southeastern Massachusetts departs by Friday night. In its wake, it drags down even colder air to Maine start the weekend.
Bitter Cold Returns Saturday
The wood stoves and furnaces will be running steady over the weekend. Most if not all of the Pine Tree state appears to experience below zero wind chill for Saturday.
Northern & eastern Maine may have to deal with freezing fog in areas overnight Friday into Saturday morning.
Actual high temperatures for the day appear to range a degree or two above zero for the mountains & north, single digits to mid-teens for most other locales. Shorelines may reach 20°, but it appears to be a struggle for that.
A look at temperatures as compared to 30-year normals for the 7 AM eastern time hour around the continent shows most of the country dealing with significant cold. This deep trough sticks around until early week, as a ridge building over the southwest pushes north.
The storm to the south at this point begins to cut across Florida into the western Atlantic, but not before causing problems over the southeast where they aren’t used to snow events. The high pressure over the Great Lakes and its positioning will be critical to watch and is a key player to just how close the southeast storm comes to Maine for Sunday.
For Now, It’s A Close Shave
By 7:00 PM Saturday night, the storm appears to clear the southeast and intensifies as it travels northeast. The European operational model has altered it’s thinking slightly pushing the storm further east. The 51 members of the ensembles are roughly a 40% to 60% split for more of a westerly track, which is concern enough for me that this should be monitored closely. The operational run from last evening brought a plowable event for Rockland to Bangor eastward. The run from this morning backed off on that idea for the most part outside of snow showers for coastal Washington county. It’s this sort of back-and-forth windshield-wiper effect that makes it difficult to pinpoint exact tracks. It does appear that it will be close, and close enough to cause a bit of discomfort. Stay tuned.
Stormy Pattern Returns Next Week
The ridge begins to build Saturday over the southwest and then appears to march northeastward into Quebec by Tuesday. With this kind of set up, it will require a low pressure system and a frontal boundary to go along with it. We may be looking at another inside runner event which may bring another round of a wintry mix to the region for the middle part of the week.
More updates on all of this in the coming days.
~ Mike Haggett
#IntegrityFirst
Updates are usually posted between 5 – 7 PM daily. Please bookmark Pine Tree Weather in order to check to get the latest update!
For official forecast information: please check in with National Weather Service Gray for Western & Southern Maine and National Weather Service Caribou for Eastern & Northern Maine.
For more information between posts, please check out the Pine Tree Weather Facebook page and follow me on Twitter for breaking weather alerts & information!
Special thanks to Tropical Tidbits and Pivotal Weather for their written permission to use their graphics in this post. Use of WeatherTAP images used within their written permitted terms of media use policy. Additional forecast information supplied by the National Weather Service, WeatherBELL Analytics and AccuWeather Professional.
Always Stay Weather Aware!
