Not just one storm this week -- two storms, piggybacking each other. If you live in NE and have snow on your roof then you need to get it off before Tuesday.

Our first wave along this battle zone arrive Tuesday during the mid-late morning. Temp profiles look cold enough to support snow for most of the day. This will be a problem for many area schools. Do they cancel school for two days in a row? Poor parents. What to do? The snow will fill in fast Tuesday…become heavier by midday, so by the afternoon commute home..there will be several inches of snow on the ground. Do you send the buses and kids out in it? Why risk it? This will be a game time call obviously. Tuesday’s morning commute will be dry, but evening commute will be a mess with snow covered road and the potential for 3-5″ of snow on the ground by 7 PM. This initial wave will pull away Tuesday night and may even mix with sleet and light rain as the precipitation begins to lighten and taper off.
Here lies the problem…The main event has not even started yet. Round #2 fills back in by dawn on Wednesday. More commuting nightmares for those who must get to work. By this time, our storm will have tracked from Texas to the Ohio valley as an intensifying low. Heavy snows will be found on the northern side of the low…from Missouri, to Iowa, to Illinois, to Michigan. As warm air becomes entrained into the low in the midlevels between 850-800 mb, that pink transition line between snow and rain will mean business! A significant sleet and freezing rain storm is likely just south of the areas which will be getting the heaviest snow. Southern, Missouri, S. Illinois, S. Indiana, Ohio and PA all seem like pretty good bets to have to deal with this icy mix.
I know what you are thinking…who cares! What about us? New England is going to be a really close call. Just a few miles in the track will have extreme differences in Ptype, amounts, and impact. The Low is going to be LOADED with moisture from the Gulf. It is going to be a flat out nasty day. I am watching the influx of warmth some of our models are showing in the mid levels with warm air advection around the low. Most have the 0 line at 850 going to the Mass Pike and stalling and then collapsing to the coast later. The GFS and JMA have been warmer, but I suspect will start to trend colder and come closer in line with the Euro and the GEM.
By Dawn on Wednesday, I am expecting snow to be falling along and north of the Pike, with freezing rain and sleet line moving through CT, RI and southeast MA. It will likely be raining on the Cape & islands by then. How far north this mix line goes is the real question, and I don’t think anyone really knows at this point. I think the best chance sleet and freezing rain will be south and along the Pike with the best chance of accumulating snow along and north of the Pike. Pretty straight forward, but again any change in warmth or track will have huge impacts to the forecast.
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2011/01/30/not-much-change-a-real-mess-on-our-hands/#