We have a split weekend weather wise on the way. After a bright, sunny, and comfortable day today tomorrow will see clouds thicken, but remaining dry for the daylight hours. Both today and tomorrow will be great ski days, but tomorrow you will need a good pair of goggles as there will be lots of that flat light under foot.

A storm is going to form along the coast to our south Saturday and then move northeastward. The storm will pass out to sea and then head into the Canadian Maritimes Sunday night. The heaviest part of the storm will be from late Saturday evening through around noon on Sunday. The heaviest snowfall will be just inland a few miles from the coast in southern York and Cumberland counties. As you move north and west of Portland snowfall will tend to diminish. The southern ski areas will end up with the most snow from this system although northern areas will see several inches of fresh powder. We are not looking at a big storm.

This is a light tomoderate size snowstorm with some rain mixing in along the immediate coast. I drew a pink line along the coast to represent those areas that could see some mixing with rain early in the storm. The most likely time for rain would be through about 1 AM Sunday morning. After that time, colder air will tend to filter into the area and change any mixture of rain and snow to all snow. I will be watching the weather models very closely the rest of the day. Any shift of the projected track of the storm will impact the amount of snow. A track further north could mean an increase to my numbers while a track further south would bring a decrease.

Winds will be brisk along the coast, but not so strong as to create coastal flooding or damage. I don’t expect there to be power issues with this storm either. Dry weather returns for Monday and Tuesday with seasonable temperatures and some melting of the new snow.

The second part of next week looks unsettled with periods of snow or even rain. The atmosphere looks to undergo a blocking pattern in the next 5 days. These patterns are notoriously difficult to forecast and often bring long periods of light rain or snow.

Gardening this week With another storm on the horizon for the weekend you might feel like spring is still very far away. The reality is that in just a few weeks, many of you will be able to get into your gardens and start growing for another year. Earlier this month I went to New England Grows which is a trade show for those who work in the industry. Although not open to the general public, in this week’s video I share some of the latest trends and newest plants for 2013. I’ll be updating the forecast all day on Twitter at @growingwisdom please send me your reports there.