Weather Watch

Snowstorm, then deep freeze, heading Cape's way

Up to 8 inches may fall on Cape starting Saturday night

Expect a return of more scenes like this from the New Year's Eve storm as up to 8 inches of snow may fall on Cape Cod starting Saturday night.

Storm will be followed by much colder, possibly sub-zero weather

 By Philip Burt

Those longing for the winters of yesteryear will soon be smiling as a one-two punch of snow and cold descends upon much of the nation in the coming weeks.

For us here on Cape Cod, winter's coming onslaught will commence with a storm Saturday Night and Sunday, marking the beginning of a prolonged period of very cold (and potentially snowy) weather, the likes of which we haven't seen in several years. But before the North Pole pays us a visit later next week, our focus should be squarely on Saturday Night and Sunday, when our next snow event should be underway.

So far this winter, our snowstorms (Dec. 19th and Dec. 31st) have taken a general west to east track across the country, moving from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic and then intensifying while heading out to sea south of Cape Cod.

Such a track is a favorable one for snow as it "holds in" the cold air along the coast and allows most, if not all, of the precipitation to fall in the frozen form. The good news for snow-lovers is our next weather system coming up for this weekend looks very similar to the previous two.

At this time, I expect a storm system to slide eastward through the Ohio Valley and head into the Mid-Atlantic region during the day on Saturday. Out ahead of this storm, a shield of snow will spread north and eastward across Pennsylvania and New Jersey, entering southwestern
Southern New England later Saturday afternoon. Snow should reach Cape Cod sometime Saturday evening and continue through a good portion of the day on Sunday.

Assuming this stays all snow (which appears likely at this time, but as always... it will be close), we should be looking at another plowable snowfall - our third significant snow event of the
season.

A general 4-to-7-inch snow storm is my early take on amounts - though some amounts closer to 8 inches are possible on the Upper Cape.

Perhaps the bigger story of the next few weeks will be the cold weather moving in during the middle to latter half of next week. It is very likely that we will have one, if not two, outbreaks of arctic Air between the 15th and the 21st of January.

Similar weather patterns in previous decades have actually delivered sub-zero cold to Cape Cod and I believe there's a chance we could be headed to similar numbers at some point in the coming 10 to 12 days.

Remember, local weather forecasts are available right here on CapeCodToday and you can get more information on the coming cold and snow at CapeCodWeather.Net.