The forecast for Wednesday’s snowstorm as of Tuesday morning.
Credit: National Weather Service
Forty-four days until spring.
But until then, Boston will be hit with multiple winter storms, one of which is coming late Tuesday into Wednesday, according to forecasts.
The National Weather Service on Monday issued a Winter Storm Watch for much of the state late Tuesday night through Wednesday afternoon. Boston is expected to get between eight and 10 inches of snow with some icing from sleet and freezing rain.
“Boston will see almost all snow,” said Alan Dunham, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton. “It would get into the higher amounts, the only thing keeping the total down would be seeing it mix with or change over to sleet for a period of time.”
Dunham said the greatest snowfall totals will be outside of Interstate 495, north and west of the city.
The snow isn’t expected to start steadily falling until after 1 a.m. Wednesday. In Boston, snow will mix with sleet will then become all snow after 2 p.m. and lasting until about 10 p.m., according to the NWS.
And the snow isn’t going to be the light and fluffy snow that has blanketed Boston during the most recent storms.
“It will be a high water content, so it’ll be heavy, wet snow to move,” Dunham said.
Dunham also warned that cold temperatures will follow the storm, meaning the snow and slush will quickly freeze.
“People should make sure everything gets cleared out because we’ve got some fairly cold air coming back behind the storm Thursday and Friday … so whatever’s still laying around is going to freeze up,” he said. The high temperature on Thursday is expected to be 29 degrees and 30 degrees on Friday.
And if that wasn’t enough, the NWS is forecasting yet another chance of snow Saturday night and Sunday. As of Monday evening, the chance of snow for the weekend was 30 percent.
Regardless of the upcoming storms, the snow totals are already piling high in Boston.
Before Monday’s snowfall, which dropped about an inch on Boston, the Hub had received 33.5 inches of snow so far this winter, according to NWS data.
For the same time period, the normal snowfall for Boston is 24 inches.
Follow Michael Naughton on Twitter @metrobosmike.
