Cold arrives, period of snow follows Thursday Night
The warmth is over. A surface cold front moving through the Northeast US has reached western and central parts of the forecast area this afternoon, and it will continue to slide eastward tonight. Southeasterly winds, which brought in fog and drizzle as well as warm temperatures in the 60’s this morning, will flip to drier northwesterly winds, and a colder airmass will surge in. Forecast models are in good agreement that temperatures will drop this evening, well into the 30’s overnight tonight. But the core of the cold airmass moving southward won’t settle into our area until this weekend.
It’s not until Thursday afternoon, when a secondary cold front passes eastward, that the surge of cold air will become noticeable. Northwest winds will become blustery and temperatures will struggle out of the 40’s for highs. But more notably, high clouds will begin to increase from the southwest. The culprit? A weak disturbance riding along the front which will, by Thursday night, be to our southeast. The disturbance will kick off a very weak low pressure system in the Western Atlantic. Weak lift for precipitation will pass over our area on Thursday Night — supporting the development of some precipitation.