A storm tonight and tomorrow will bring a few inches of snow to Portland and much of Maine as well as some snow squalls that’ll affect driving visibility.
AccuWeather meteorologist Brandon Buckingham says an arctic cold front moving through the area will bring potent snow squalls from Maine to the New York-Pennsylvania border.
Temperatures will fall to the upper teens by Tuesday afternoon and around 15 degrees at night.
The next 24-48 hours will see more snow and squalls, with a brief respite on Thursday and Friday.
By late Friday and into Saturday, a system could bring a mix of rain and snow.
The winter has been relatively snowless due to a persistent ridge of high pressure along the West Coast and a trough of low pressure along the East Coast, shifting the jet stream south.
Buckingham says the jet stream has been responsible for record snowfall in the southern US but has brought unusually light snow to New England.
“So that has shifted that storm track so far south that we’ve been entrenched in the cold, but there’s been really no moisture that has worked its way up into the area to produce that snowfall,” said Buckingham.
Snow amounts tonight and tomorrow look fairly light with 1-to-3 inches around the state, although southern Maine likely sees higher totals of 2-4 inches.
Buckingham says there won’t likely be heavy snow anytime soon. “It doesn’t scream any major storms to talk about,” Buckingham said. “Maybe a few kind of nickel and dime systems, if you will, with an inch, inch or two, maybe into early February. But (there are) no real major storm systems on the horizon.”