Temps in Free Fall; Late Week Storm?

An update on the Covid-testing chances for delays or cancellations for Monday:

A few more schools in eastern Massachusetts have decided to go with delays and/or cancellations to allow for testing to occur, but those decisions have been more sporadic than wide-spread. The Massachusetts state teachers' union has called for a day off tomorrow to allow testing to take place; the Commonwealth has rejected that request. So, it's up to your school district to determine if there will be any change to the length of the school day. 

Perhaps the smartest decision would be for school to start on time, but building officials should create a buffer period to allow for testing to take place before classes begin. That plan would probably be easier to implement at the middle and high school level.

Now the winter weather update. If you've been outside at all today, you'll notice that the temperature continues to drop ever so gradually. Tomorrow will actually feel like winter. You'll wake up to temps in the mid-teens, and most areas will top out at 25 degrees for an afternoon high.

You might also see a few flakes this afternoon. We're actually in a dry swath between two storms. One is bringing snow and mixed precipitation to the mid-Atlantic, and the other is coating northern New England with several inches of snow. 

But, alas, it will warm up again back into the 40s by Wednesday before all eyes turn to a coastal storm (i.e. nor'easter) that could impact the school day on Friday. Yes, it's early to be talking about this storm, but what makes this one slightly different is that our favored computer models--the North American and European--have been much more in sync for this one than for this season's earlier storms. 

If the storm is ultimately a bust, it means it didn't hug the coast as tightly as we would like and it drifted out to sea, which, of course, is a distinct possibility.

The image below is what the Euro model is showing for snow totals by the end of the day on Friday. Now that's what we're talking about!

Image courtesy of Pivotal Weather.