While today is clearly the nicest of the year, a Winter Storm Watch has been issued and will be in effect from 1 a.m. Thursday – 10 a.m. Friday. I should also mention, although dumping the remnants of your morning coffee in the driveway triggers one, a Coastal Flood Watch will also be in effect from 10 a.m. Thursday through 3 p.m. Friday; a window of time which covers three high tide cycles.
The makeup of this storm consists of a cold high pressure system moving west to east on track to merge over New England with a wet weather low pressure system moving up the coast.
The current snowfall projections are ranging from 8”-12”, 8”-14” and in one case 8”-18”’s. Given the proximity of the merging systems in addition to the ocean effect, this picture should be a bit clearer tomorrow morning. Hit and miss snow is likely between midnight and Thursday morning with a light and steady snow developing and becoming consistent during the day tomorrow. During this time frame, winds will begin to increase from the teens early Thursday to the low 30 mph range by late Thursday evening into early Friday.
The upside is that any accumulations are exclusively predicted to be a light and fluffy snow which greatly diminishes power issues.