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Writer's pictureTim Dennis

Quiet (but cold) Stretch of Weather Returns to New England After Nor'Easter

New England's Thanksgiving nor'easter will continue to gradually slide northeast through Nova Scotia and the Canadian Maritimes today. At the same time, an upper low will continue to sit to New England's north, near James Bay in Canada. This will keep New England under broad cyclonic flow, though very limited snow shower activity is expected, even in the mountains today. A few snow showers may make it into western New England later this afternoon and evening.



The nor'easter will continue to move away from New England, which was able to sufficiently strengthen and with enough cold air on the back side, it allowed for heavy bands of snow to develop. A swath of 8-12 inches of snow fell across interior northern New England with a jackpot zone setting up in the southern Green Mountains, where a general 12-18 inches fell. The northern Berkshires over-performed, with Hawley, Massachusetts (located over 1,000 feet) picking up nearly 10 inches.


Below: Thanksgiving snowfall:


This was generally a heavy and wet snow, which did result in a round of power outages Thanksgiving evening, especially as the more intense and widespread snow bands moved through Maine. Over 90,000 in New England lost power at some point in the last 24 hours, including over 70,000 in Maine alone. As of 8am, around 76,000 remain without power, including 73,000 in Maine alone.



After this storm, another stretch of fairly quiet weather is expected for New England with no Thanksgiving-like storm systems currently on the horizon. A major lake-effect snow event is expected to develop over the few days, and with broad cyclonic flow over New England, a few wayward snow showers may be able to push into the northern Green Mountains and Berkshires this evening.


Below: HRRR showing potential weather this evening:


Overall, the United States will be entering into a blocking pattern with a ridge-in-the-west-trough-in-the-east setup. This will lead to several days of persistent weather with very little change between them. Without any defined storm systems within the troughing over New England, the region will be mainly dry (outside of occasional mountain snow showers) and partly cloudy to mostly sunny, with generally more clouds farther north.


This pattern will also result in a persistently cold air mass over the northeast. Highs from the weekend through much of next week will be in the 20s north to 30s south with very cold overnight lows. Persistent troughing will allow for multiple shots of polar air across the eastern United States through midweek. This will allow temperatures to drop a couple degrees cooler each day through mid-week.



New England's next chance at more widespread precipitation will come toward the end of next week, likely Wednesday night to Thursday, as this specific blocking pattern begins to break down. An Alberta Clipper system will likely develop and drop into northern New England during this time. This would result in some snow showers with little indication of a secondary low development off the coast. Without a secondary low, this would be a minor event.


Below: Current weather map for Thursday morning showing the Alberta Clipper system approaching:


The ridge-in-the-west-trough-in-the-east pattern currently looks to hold through at least the start of December, and indications show temperatures cooling off further heading toward the end of next week. A strong cold front currently looks poised to follow the Alberta Clipper, which will usher in a colder air mass than the one that will be persistently over the region through midweek. There are indications that New England may get its first Arctic air mass of the season around next weekend (December 6-8).


Below: Euro showing temperatures at the 850mb level (about 4,700 feet above sea level) next weekend, showing the potential for a frigid air mass to move over New England:


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