A chilly start to Sunday will give way to an increase in clouds as temperatures remain  just under the freezing mark most of the day.   We do have some wintry weather for tomorrow.  Now, please repeat after me, “this is a small storm, this is not a big event, this is a small storm, and this is not a big event.”  However (there’s always one of those) the timing is going to make for a difficult commute Monday morning.

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

If you are fortunate to be watching the Patriots play at Gillette Stadium expect temperatures to be near freezing with little or no wind at all. If you are watching it from the comfort of your own living room, weather won’t be a factor in how the game ends up or ended up turning out. (depending on when you read this)

Around midnight snow will begin to reach the south coast of New England and spread northward hitting the Boston area between about 1 AM and 2 AM and into southern Maine after 4 AM.  The snow will not be heavy, but will stick to the cold ground including the roads. 

I am expecting 1 to 3 inches of snow across the area.  There may be a bit less right along the water and over some of the islands, while the highest amounts will be west of the coastline and in the elevated areas of western York, Cumberland and Oxford counties.

The majority of the precipitation will fall in the morning, as a matter of fact if the system moves quickly enough; the snow could be finished by 1PM.  The snow will mix with sleet and freezing rain before ending as a bit of drizzle or light rain along the coast.  The freezing rain, if it lasts for a couple of hours, could coat some of the trees and untreated surfaces with a thin layer of ice, but there will not be much in the way of ice accretion.

As the system passes Monday night, a new small area of low pressure will develop along a stalled front in the ocean.  The clouds and precipitation shield from this low will brush by the area Tuesday.   Any snow and rain from this storm will remain hundreds of miles south of Maine with the only affects being batches of clouds mixing with the sunshine.

Wednesday and Thursday feature dry and cold conditions.  Temperatures in the afternoon Wednesday will reach the upper 20s, but likely remaining in the lower 20s for Thursday.  On Friday morning, dry arctic air remains in place with temperatures well below average. 

Next weekend’s weather is questionable as the atmosphere will be undergoing some changes which could spawn a new storm, but the details of this will have to wait several more days to see if it even happens.

The daylight hours continue to shrink, but the earliest sunset of the year occurs today.  Although the “shortest day of the year” occurs on December 21^st, the sunsets begin to become later tomorrow.  While this is happening the sunrises are growing later so the gap between the two shrinks for 2 more weeks.

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