Weekend Snow Watch: Will Strong Saturday Storm Hit MA?

MASSACHUSETTS — The first chance for substantial snow amid a cold and blustery stretch to start 2025 appears to be a fleeting one for most of New England.

While forecasters said the projected storm had a chance to bring nor'easter conditions to New England earlier in the week, AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter pegged that chance at "only about a 15 percent chance of occurrence" as of Wednesday morning.

The National Weather Service put the chances of any snow on Saturday at 50 percent in Greater Boston with the highest likelihood of snow between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m.

Accuweather said the storm will track from the Texas coast on Thursday to the Georgia and South Carolina coast late Friday night. This track will produce considerable snow and ice over portions of the southern Appalachians and an icy mix for the Piedmont areas of Georgia and the Carolinas.

"A storm that fails to strengthen and speed eastward and off the southern Atlantic coast will likely not be able to spread heavy snow very far to the north in the mid-Atlantic region," AccuWeather Chief On-Air Meteorologist Bernie Rayno said.

The second possibility would be a storm that quickly strengthens on the Atlantic coast and takes a northward track.

"Not only would such a storm bring a substantial amount of snow to cities such as Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, and even Boston from Saturday to Saturday night, but it would also increase winds along the coast on par with a major nor'easter," Porter said.

In the meantime, cold and windy conditions will continue across Massachusetts through Thursday. Daytime highs will be in the 20s, overnight lows will be in the teens, and wind chill temperatures will benear zero and in the single digits for much of each day.

Temperatures and the wind will moderate for a relatively present Friday, according to the NWS, with a high of 38 and winds easing to 8 to 11 mph.

Saturday will be mostly cloudy with the chance of snow showers — at this time — and a high of 33.

Sunday should return to mostly sunny conditions with a high of 37.

Next week is shaping up to be similar to this past one with persistent cold and sunny conditions and winds making it feel more frigid than the daytime highs in the 20s and low 30s.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)