Weather Alert: Quiet Tonight; Rain, Wind & Snow Mon-Wed

WEATHER ALERT: A coastal storm will bring heavy rain, heavy wet snow, and strong wind gusts from Monday into Wednesday morning.

After a nice sunshine-filled day we’re tracking increasing clouds for the rest of this evening and overnight tonight.

New from this afternoon: A Winter Storm Watch has been issued for northwest and central Rhode Island, mainly for late Tuesday and Tuesday night when 3-6″ of snow is possible.

It’ll be heavy wet snow, which will cling to trees and power lines. With strong wind gusts, power outages are possible — again, mainly for northwest Rhode Island.

Here’s the timeline…

Monday will start out dry and cloudy…

Rain showers develop during the afternoon on Monday, but they won’t be too impactful.

Rainfall will become heavy at times Monday night and continue into Tuesday morning. 1 to 2.5″ of rain is possible.

Strong wind gusts will develop, too. Northeast winds will gust 35-50mph Tuesday afternoon and night.

The rain will switch to snow, and start accumulating especially in northwest Rhode Island Tuesday afternoon/evening. As the storm pulls away and colder air filters in, most areas will see snow, but accumulations will be limited. Northwest Rhode Island could see 3-6″ of snow.

As far as impacts go, we’ll see 1 to 2.5″ of rain which could lead to some localized street flooding. We’ll watch the larger rivers in the area, but they should remain in their banks.

Winds could gust to 50mph from the northeast and north. Those winds, combined with the snow could create power outages.

An early call on the snowfall…3-6″ for northwest Rhode Island. It will be wet, pasty snow, sticking to trees and power lines.