Wintry Mess Wednesday Evening and Overnight

Another wintry mess is set to impact CT, however, this does not look like it will be a high impact system with the majority of the impacts occurring during the evening and overnight. Road conditions will deteriorate Wednesday evening the Thursday morning commute may have some delays, however, temperatures will warm well-above freezing through Thursday morning.

The big focus for precipitation tomorrow will be largely due to warm-air advection associated with an approaching warm front and shortwave energy riding along the crest of an upper-level ridge:

While snow will break out across PA, parts of southern NY, and NJ as early as Wednesday morning it will take its sweet time not only moving into CT, but falling to reach the ground. This is due to a rather large area of high pressure overhead which will try and act like a wall for the advancing precipitation and dry air that will be in place during the day. As high pressure departs to the northeast the atmosphere will become saturated and snow will begin to fall by late afternoon/early evening:

Bufkit forecast soundings at Windsor Locks, CT tomorrow evening indicate a period of rather strong lift moving through the state. This is associated with the push of warmer air aloft and will yield two things;

1) A band of moderate-to-heavy snow on the leading edge of warmer air
2) Be the boundary between snowfall and snow transitioning over to sleet and freezing rain.

• Snow breaks out 5:00 - 8:00 PM from southwest to northeast across the state.
• Heaviest snow from 8:00 PM to midnight 
• Highest totals north where colder air lingers and coincides with strongest lift.
• Sleet may also be heavy at times overnight and will accumulating up to a coating to 1/2'' in spots. 
• Freezing rain isn't expected to be a major issue, but could accumulate up to 0.10'' across the northern part of the state. 
• Precipitation exits by 5:00 AM Thursday. Early Thursday morning commute may be slick with some delays.
• Most locations away from the shoreline see around 1-2'' of snow, but some localized higher amounts where heaviest banding traverses and heaviest echos occur.