A bit of light snow shower activity crossed the area this morning, but this isn’t related to the main storm we have on tap for tonight and much of Wednesday.  I often update changes in the forecast on my twitter account @growingwisdom, so be sure to follow me there.

It’s been a very dry fall and you have to go back to June to find a period with a widespread rainstorm similar to what we have upcoming tonight.  Because the air is still quite cold, there is a winter weather advisory up for inland and especially the mountains. 

Before I get to the details of the forecast, let me talk about the traffic for a minute.  Tuesday afternoon and Tuesday evening has become one of the busiest days to leave the area now riviling Wednesday.   Keep that in mind when making plans.  Wednesday morning is usually a very light traffic day, with the bulk of the cars hitting the road after noon.  The traffic also tends to die off a bit earlier Wednesday evening than you might expect.

Now let’s put the upcoming storm on top of what we know about the traffic.  I don’t expect any precipitation for the entire daylight hours.  Take a look at  the map below.  This is a projected radar for 8PM.  At that time rain will have broken out across much of Connecticut and down through New York City.    

The next image shows a wider shot of about the same time period.  Notice the heavy rain down much of the Atlantic seaboard. On the western side of the rain back through Pittsburgh, parts of Ohio and western New York it will be snowing.  Some of the snow will be heavy and wet and cause power outages.

 

Overnight the peak of the wind and rain will be affecting southern and central Maine.  Rain will come down heavy at times and somewhere between 1 and 3 inches of water will fall.  Winds will be strong and a high wind watch is up for the areas east of Bangor. There is also a winter weather advisory in place for the foothills and mountains. (purple areas) The radar below shows how the heavy rain will be positioned around midnight tonight.

Inland and mountain areas

There will be enough cold air trapped west of the coastal plain to allow the storm to start as a mix of snow/sleet and freezing rain.  Travel could and will become quite slippery in areas like Rumford, Mexico, Eustis, Paris and Rangley.  Along the coast, you might see a few sloppy snowflakes at the start, but anything that falls will quickly wash away.

Since today is going to be dry and not too cold, if you can safely clean out your gutters I highly recommend doing so.  If you normally don’t have a problem with water coming in, don’t worry about it, but if you are like me, the gutters overflow into the basement and I don’t need that hastle on top of cooking for 14.

Tomorrow will start very wet and windy, but the storm is moving so fast, I expect the rain to be over wello before sunset.  This is good news if you need to travel Wednesday evening as the rain will be moving north rapidily.  Across New York and points further south, the rain will end Wednesday morning quite early.  The radar projection for 3PM Wednesday has nearly all of the rain ended and pushing out to sea.

As the storm ends, colder air will wrap in and there could be a quick flurry, but I am not expecting any significant snow at all from this system.  In the mountains, there could be a light accumulation of snow as the colder air wraps back into the area tomorrow night.

Temperatures  will continue to rise through night and into Wednesay morning.  I expect many areas along the coast to reach the 50s and you will actually feel some humidity in the air.  It’s an amazing atmospheric turnaround from the arctic air currently departing.

 

The rest of the holiday weekend looks dry with cold conditions for Thanksgiving.  Highs on Turkey Day will barely hit the freezing mark with a repeat on Friday.   We will have a slightly less cold day Saturday and Sunday highs should rebound close to 40F with more clouds.   

Around the House This Week I know some of you are already thinking about Christmas trees. Did you ever consider there are great trees you can add to the landscape that make great Christmas trees? Even if you don’t decorate the tree, it will still be a wonderful addition in the landscape.

I’ll be updating the forecast for the week on Twitter at @growingwisdom Please follow me there. Feel free to comment or ask questions too.

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