3 hours Ago By Matthew Medsger
If you were hoping for a picturesque snow covered scene to go along with your Thanksgiving dinner, you may be in for disappointment, as the National Weather Service is predicting rain for Thursday and through much of the week. After weeks of prolonged drought, any type of precipitation is certainly welcome, NWS Meteorologist Caity Mensch told the Herald on Sunday — except perhaps to those hoping to have fluffy white fields as a backdrop to their holiday gatherings. “Sadly, it’s going to mostly be a rain event,” Mensch said.
The week will start with a dry and mostly sunny Monday, according to the meteorologist, with high temperatures pushing into the low 50s. Heavy winds blowing through the weekend should “be on the decrease by then,” Mensch said. Overnight, the temperature will drop just below freezing Monday into Tuesday, and there is a slight chance it starts to rain early on the following morning.
‘The first chance we’ll have for another system is Tuesday morning,” Mensch said. “Right at commute time.” That system, “will not look like the rain event we just had” this past week, according to the meteorologist, but will instead be a “quick shot,” amounting to about a quarter-of-an-inch in precipitation.
Temperatures on Tuesday are expected to top out in the lower 50s, according to NWS, and the chance of rain approaches 100% before 3 p.m. but should clear by evening.
Overnight lows, the weather service predicts, will hover just above freezing. Wednesday is expected to be mostly sunny around Boston, with a high temperature in the mid-to-upper 40s and some light wind. Clouds are forecast to arrive overnight, when the mercury will again fall to just above freezing.
Thanksgiving Day travelers will likely have a dry-if-cloudy start to their journeys, but may run into wet conditions on their way home that evening, when the chance of rain stands at 60%. There is some chance that some Bay State residents may see a few flurries on Thursday night, according to Mensch, but only those living in higher elevations like the Worcester Hills or in the Berkshires. Even then, any snow that falls will likely be “very wet” and unlikely to accumulate, he said.
Despite this year’s forecast of a washed-out holiday, according to Mensch, it’s not uncommon to see some flurries this time of year. The mean date for a tenth-of-an-inch of snow for Boston is November 28, she said. The date by which we generally see a full inch of snow covering the Boston Common, according to NWS, is December 11th.
Even with last week’s rain and the water predicted to fall in the coming days, it may be some time before the region clears any declared drought conditions . “It takes several weeks of dry conditions for us to officially enter a drought,” Mensch said. “It’s will take a roughly symmetrical amount of time for us to get out of one, so we’ll have to wait and see when that condition clears.
Across the country, snowy weather has arrived in full force. In California, where two people were found dead in floodwaters on Saturday, authorities braced for more rain while grappling with flooding and small landslides from a previous storm. The National Weather Service office in Sacramento, California, issued a winter storm warning for the Sierra Nevada through Tuesday, with heavy snow expected at higher elevations and wind gusts potentially reaching 55 mph.
Total snowfall of roughly 4 feet was forecast, with the heaviest accumulations expected Monday and Tuesday. Heavy snow also fell in northeastern Pennsylvania, including the Pocono Mountains. Higher elevations reported up to 17 inches, with lesser accumulations in valley cities including Scranton and Wilkes-Barre.
Around 35,000 customers in 10 counties were still without power, down from 80,000 a day ago. — Herald wire services contributed.
