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Editor’s note: The city will begin salting at 11pm. There is no parking ban and schools are on for tomorrow. Waste Management will be picking up trash (more or less.) However, there’s a slight possibility the school decision can be revisited at 5:30am.

JANUARY 17 2018 SNOWFALL: FINAL CALL

…Unusual amount of uncertainty still exists regarding the evolution of the precipitation shield/temperatures tomorrow morning-afternoon…

Timing is everything with this system. Morning commute still looking rough…cancellations likely.

A small and relatively weak storm system is expected to form off of the New Jersey coastline and move northeastward…passing just south of Cape Cod. As this storm parallels the South Coast of New England…warmer air will move into the region south of Boston. Coastal locations will also hover around 32F, maybe even 33-34…giving the snow a wetter consistency. Also, this will impede accumulation as snow may melt during times of lighter precipitation.

In short, the interior is likely to stay snow and have a colder atmospheric profile…limiting any mixing chances. As shown here in this image, 5-7 inches of snow can be expected in the colder interior locations.

Along the coast…3-5 inches of snow are likely. Some mixing plus a heavier/wetter snow will mean lower accumulations than the interior. Snow may change to rain at the end of the storm. 

On the Cape…some snow at the beginning and very end of the storm will prevent a shutout down there. 3 inches most likely near Foxboro…1 inch towards the outer Cape.

Although I try not to do this…another round of model data will be coming out later this evening. These models, in concert with live weather observations from the Mid-Atlantic, may give us more confidence in rain/snow lines and storm totals altogether.
This storm is rather complicated despite it’s relative insignificance. I’ll update later this evening!