WORCESTER – A warm front will be located to the south of our area throughout the rest of today. There will be plenty of moisture in place across Western and Central Massachusetts.
This all means that cloudy skies are expected throughout the rest of Tuesday. High temperatures will be between 45 and 49 degrees.
Skies on Tuesday night will be cloudy and there will be some scattered rain and snow showers after midnight. Low temperatures will be between 30 and 35 degrees.
Dry weather is expected on Wednesday. There will likely be more clouds than sunshine during the day. High temperatures Wednesday will be between 35 and 40 degrees.
Wednesday Night Through Thursday: An area of low pressure is expected to strengthen as it moves from the Ohio Valley on Wednesday night and across New England on Thursday. Cold air is expected to be trapped near the ground across the entire area on Wednesday night into Thursday. In addition, a warm front will slowly move northward towards the area.
This all means that snow and sleet will overspread Central Mass. around midnight Wednesday night. The mixture of snow and sleet is then expected to continue throughout the rest of Wednesday night.
On Thursday morning, the snow and sleet is expected to change to freezing rain from south to north starting along and south of the Mass. Pike between 5 AM and 7 AM Thursday morning and then across areas north of the Mass. Pike between 8 AM and 10 AM. This will likely lead to icy travel conditions during Thursday morning’s commute.
The next question is how quickly will the freezing rain change to rain across the region. Across the Blackstone Valley, the freezing rain will change to rain by late morning. Across the Worcester hills, the changeover from freezing rain to rain may be slower to occur with freezing rain lingering well in the afternoon. In fact, parts of the northern Worcester hills may stay as freezing rain throughout all of Thursday afternoon.
Snow and sleet accumulations late Wednesday night into Thursday morning will be around one inch across much of Central Mass. The exception will be along and north of Route 2 where up to 2 inches of snow and sleet accumulation is expected.
As for ice accumulations on Thursday, around one tenth of an inch of ice accumulation is expected across the Blackstone Valley. One to two-tenths of an inch of ice accumulation is expected across most of the Worcester hills. It is possible that higher ice accumulations could occur across the northern Worcester hills and this is something that will really need to be watched.
Thursday Night Through Friday: After a brief break in the precipitation on Thursday evening, rain is expected to spread across Central Mass late Thursday night and continue through Friday morning. The rain could be heavy at times and may bring delays during Friday morning’s commute.
By later Friday morning and Friday afternoon, colder air will start to wrap into the area and could cause the rain to change to some light snow across the northern Worcester hills. It is even possible that the rain could change to light snow across all of Central Mass. by late Friday afternoon.
For a more in-depth look at Worcester’s forecast, visit Route20Weather.com.
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