Lots of snow, high winds and bitter cold
By Will Collette
Temperatures will determine the nature of the snowfall. In Charlestown, the forecast shows a high of 31 degrees at the storm's start, 22 degrees during the bulk of the storm tomorrow and then a high of 32 degrees as the storm winds down on Monday.
Colder air means lighter snow; temps around freezing could lead to wet snow that would increase the likelihood of power failures especially with the strong winds.
Here's the National Weather Service forecast for Charlestown:
NOAA's advanced winter forecasting site projects these snow accumulations:
NOAA also presents an interesting set of odds for snow accumulation by city and town. They give the odds for Westerly at 81% for 8 inches or more, but those odds drop to 34% for a foot or more and zero for 18 inches plus.
Despite drastic cuts by the Trump regime to NOAA's funding and staff, NOAA is still pretty good at this. The other likely Trump effect to this storm is any havoc it causes will be on us to clean up. FEMA has been gutted and it is unlikely Trump will approve any request for a National Disaster Declaration for any of the Blue states of the northeast.
Charlestown Town Hall will be closed Monday. The scheduled Tow Council meeting will be postponed until Thursday, January 29. CLICK HERE for Charlestown's official storm portal.
From the Charlestown Police:
Warming Centers Open in Charlestown 
Charlestown Town Hall
Monday–Friday | 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM Charlestown Senior Community Center Monday–Thursday | 8:30 AM – 4:00 PM Friday | 8:30 AM – 12:00 PM Police Department – Community Room
Daily | 7:00 AM – 5:00 PM
A parking ban for all roads in Charlestown will go into effect Sunday at noon through Tuesday at 7am.
Historical context.
We've seen and survived worse. The biggest snowstorm Rhode Island has endured was the February 1978. Cathy and I lived in Providence at the time. I remember the snow reached our second-floor window as we waited for emergency equipment to reach us, sent by the city of Buffalo, NY. Accumulations in South County were just under 30 inches.
Upon our return to Rhode Island to live in Charlestown, we went through several more historic snowstorms - in 2003 and 2005. In 2013, we had Winter storm Nemo that knocked out power in Charlestown for days. Nemo dropped 19 inches on Charlestown. The Presidents' Day 2003 storm dropped around 15 inches on South County.
The blizzard of January 2005 was bad, but it was east of us on the Cape that really got hammered with 40+ inches plus hurricane force winds.
Click here for a NOAA slide show comparing these storms.
And from WPRI's Eli Sherman:
But at least we don't live in Greenland.
