A coating of snow and sleet on the grass in a few places with a bit more in spots was long before sunrise today.  Once you got north of Freeport almost nothing fell with barely a trace at my cottage in Harpswell.  The bulk of the weekend looks sunny and chilly with temperatures below normal, but not excessively cold.

The pattern across the country remains active with a weather system out west brings rain and heavy snow. Parts of Utah, Colorado and California will all receive over a foot of new snow.  Ski season in the west is off to a great start.

Further east a system will move out of the southern states and bring a mixed bag of precipitation to the Tennessee and Ohio valleys and eventually New England

Sunshine will increase today and any snow on the ground should melt in areas exposed to the sun.  Temperatures will rise above freezing, so walks and driveways will have a chance to clear if you have an icy patch on them.   Most everyone didn’t have any significant frozen precipitation.

Clear skies overnight bring cold temperatures back to the area.  Lows by Sunday will be in the teens with a few inland valley spots getting closer to 11F or 12F.

Sunday dawns bright and sunny.  Sunday is also the earliest sunset of the year.  The sunrises are getting later faster making for a net loss of daylight through the 21^st, but if you are looking for something hopeful, sunsets start getting slightly (seconds) later next week.

Late Sunday night moisture will stream north into the area.  Since temperatures at all levels of the atmosphere will be cold enough for  snow.  This is not a big snowstorm, rather it’s one where the timing is the major impact and even then, it might not be a big issue.

Anytime you get a weather system hitting during a commute, there are slowdowns.  While this is anything but a big system, there could be an inch or two on the ground in York and Cumberland Counties by 7AM.  Further north there will be less snow at that time.

Currently, it appears a period of snow will break out after midnight and then mix with sleet, freezing rain and rain before ending.  The amount of snow and ice appears to me to be minimal right now.  Even if we stayed cold throughout the entire event, we would still only receive about 3 inches of snow in most places. Early indications are for 1 to 2 inches of snow along the coast and a bit more inland and in the mountains, but I will update my thinking throughout the weekend.

During the day I update the forecast as it changes on Twitter at @growingwisdom Please follow me there. Feel free to comment or ask questions too.

 

Outdoor project this weekend In this video I show you a project you can do this weekend and bring the kids along too.