About this episode
Winter is not done with New England. A potent late-season system is pushing a wintry mix of rain, sleet, and snow across the region today, delivering hazardous driving conditions along some of the Northeast's most heavily traveled highway corridors. The National Weather Service Boston/Norton office flagged two distinct hazard windows for Monday: a morning round of sleet and wet snow mixing in along and north of I-90, followed by a second round of scattered snow squalls expected through midnight.The Primary Threat: Wintry Mix and Morning Commute Hazards Along I-90The immediate threat is concentrated along the Massachusetts Turnpike corridor and points north. NWS Boston forecasters specifically flagged the potential for increased snow and sleet accumulation along I-90 during the morning commute hours, warning of slushy surfaces even where precipitation is lighter. Rain has been mixing with sleet and wet snow near and north of the Pike since before dawn.Where the heavier precipitation bands materialize, brief accumulations of up to 2 inches are possible on paved surfaces near the I-90 corridor. That threshold may sound modest, but wet, heavy late-season snow on a commuter highway carrying significant truck traffic is not a minor event. Temperatures are holding in the low-to-mid 30s across central Massachusetts, exactly the marginal range where road surfaces can transition from wet to slushy with little warning.Related: I Drove The Mini Cooper JCW Here's My Honest ReviewThe Secondary System: Squalls Push North Through New EnglandThe heavier totals are tracking toward northern New England, where NWS forecasters and the Weather Prediction Center have been tracking the development of an inverted trough extending back from a departing low. That feature is expected to focus a north-south band of snow showers across eastern New England, capable of intensifying into squall conditions late Monday as an incoming shortwave trough sweeps in from the west.Northern New Hampshire and western Maine are in the highest-impact zone, with totals in the 3 to 6 inch range forecast by NWS across that corridor, and localized pockets pushing higher in the extreme north. Visibility in the heaviest squall bands can drop to near zero in minutes.Regional Specifics: Named Highways and Passes at RiskI-90, the Mass Pike, carries tens of thousands of vehicles daily through the snowbelt north of Worcester and into the Berkshires. Today it is the primary highway hazard zone south of the New Hampshire border. North of the Pike, US-3, I-93, I-89, and I-95 through New Hampshire and Maine are all tracking inside the sq
