You’ve likely heard about the possibility of snow for the weekend. The snow in the forecast is due to a complex storm system moving up the coast and then into eastern Canada. The track of this storm will be far enough east so the bulk of the heavy rain and snow will fall over the ocean or parts of Nova Scotia.

The storm is going to eventually develop into a very large nor’easter. The map below shows the position of the storm Sunday afternoon. The isobars (lines around the low pressure system) are very close together, an indication of a tight gradient. This means you can expect winds to be gusty later this weekend.

It appears the system is going to be in two pieces before blowing up into on large storm in the Canadian Maritimes. Storms are indicated on weather maps using the letter L for low pressure. This means the pressure is the lowest in the area where you see the L. Notice early Sunday morning at 1AM there are two lows off the east coast.

As the first storm approaches Saturday, clouds will dominate and there is a chance of some rain in the afternoon. Overnight Saturday, as the first storm makes its closes pass to southern Maine we will have a period of cold rain.

As the second low passes Sunday it will put down colder air. This is when, as temperatures fall, there might be some flakes mixing in with the rain along the coast with a complete change to snow across the Capitol District and ski country.

I am not expecting much accumulation of snow in of most of southern and central Maine. From about Augusta to Bangor there could be a coasting to an inch or two of snow. The higher amounts will occur as one moves further east. It’s also possible you’ll have to go east of Bangor to see any accumulation. This would bring just a few flakes at the end of the storm to central Maine.

It’s less likely the storm moves further west, but I will need to watch future model runs to be sure that doesn’t happen. If the second storm did come closer that is when we would see snow in southern Maine.

Skies will clear for Monday and while it will be cold it will also be quite dry. Temperatures on Monday only reach the 40s, but we will see warming trend thereafter. I expect most of us to be well into the 50s in terms of high temperatures during the middle of next week. Another cold shot of air may make itself felt next weekend, but that is very far away.

The bottom line is you should look for a cold rain Saturday afternoon and night perhaps ending as a mix of rain and snow on Sunday. While this isn’t likely to be our first snowstorm of the season, it’s a good bet many of us see our first flakes.