How Much Snow Will Melrose Get?

Updated at 2 p.m. Wednesday

Boston is in for some wet weather Wednesday through Friday, according to local forecasts, but don't get out your snow shovels yet.

For Boston, the local weather teams are not predicting very much snow. Instead, expect a lot of rain and maybe some heavy slushy snow in spots. While areas inland may get a half a foot of snow, Boston's bigger concern is the three high tides during this storm.

Flooding may become an issue along the immediate coast.

Here are the latest forecasts from the local television news weather teams for the Melrose region. All totals were updated Wednesday morning:

WHDH (7 News): All rain

WLVI (NewsCenter 5): 1-2 inches along the coast, six inches or more inland

WBZ (CBS Local): 2-4 inches

WFXT (MyFox Boston): 1-3 inches

NECN: 1-3 inches

Original Report

Punxsutawney Phil's prognostication back on Groundhog Day for an early spring is increasingly looking like a cruel joke on the public.

Melrose could see between 4 and 8 inches of snow starting Wednesday night through Friday morning, according to the National Weather Service (NWS), which issued a winter storm watch on Tuesday night.

"There is still some uncertainty with snowfall amounts, but this storm will have a significant impact on southern New England," the NWS said. 

The forecast calls for a chance of rain showers during the day on Wednesday, as the high temperature will hover near 42 degrees with a steady northeast wind between 13 and 21 miles per hour and gusts as high as 36 miles per hour.

But as the temperature drops overnight, and the wind continues to blow up to 21 miles per hour, that rain will change over to snow by Thursday morning. And with a high temperature around 37 degrees, it'll likely be the heavy, wet stuff that's tough to shovel and could bring down tree branches and power lines.

The snow should continue until Friday morning when it begins to taper off, and as temperatures rise to a high near 41, any remaining precipitation will turn to rain before a mostly cloudy Friday night with a low around 29.

Melrosians can still hope to be spared—after all, while the forecasts for the Blizzard of '13 ended up fairly accurate, snowfall forecasts for the last two weekends in February turned out to be a little generous.