Light snow continues to fall across parts of southern Maine with the steadiest around and south of Portland.  The snow will continue a few more hours before ending around or just after dark.

Yesterday saw a coating to 2 inches of snow across the area. Here is a small sample of cities and towns reporting snow from the Monday’s system.

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

Storm passes south

A boundary between cold and mild air will remain in place today just off the coast.  This boundary will be the focus for another wave of snow, but it will stay far enough south to mostly miss the areas. Snow has been falling on and off for several hours in some towns, while others see nothing more than gray skies.  The snow will tend to shrink and move out to sea over the next several hours leaving a coating to an inch where it does snow.  Isolated spots could have slightly more.

If you are headed south today into Boston I am forecasting 1 to 2 inches of snow for the city with higher totals in the 2 to 4 inch rain further south.  The morning commute will not be affected. The evening commute could be impacted a bit as snow remains on the roads, but much of the snow will have ended by 5PM.

Skies will clear overnight and tomorrow will be sunny and cold, but not bitter.  Winds will however be busy in the afternoon so it will feel chilly.

Arctic air, which is very cold, will spill into the area behind this system, especially for Thursday and Friday when highs will reach only into the lower 20s and stay in the teens over inland areas.

Weekend storm

Next weekend shows a slight moderation in temperature, but still readings will be quite a bit below normal.   Along with the exiting of the pure arctic air, another storm, with more significant moisture, is forecast to impact the area Sunday into Sunday night. Right now it appears snow will begin sometime Sunday morning and then we have to watch and see how much warm air makes it into this system.   If this ends up being all snow and ice, it could be a more impactful storm than anything we have seen so far.

The image below is called a meteogram and shows temperature and precipitation trends for the next week.  I have highlighted some of the more interesting pieces of this chart.  The chart also can show wind and pressure, but I have not put those variables on here.

 I still feel that towards the end of the month the pattern will shift again and milder air will ensue.  This doesn’t mean winter will be over of course, but since we started with the cold so early, it’s likely that a break will happen later this month and into January.

Record snow

When the ground becomes white, it reflects heat.  When you have so much of the country with white ground, the air becomes very hard to warm-up.   Yesterday saw 69% of the country covered by snow, this is a record for so early in the season and helps explain why so much of the United States has been so cold, so early. 

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