Following last Thursday’s snowy morning and the heavy wind and rain of March 2, the third nor’easter to hit Waltham in fewer than two weeks arrived today, causing an all day closure of the University. 

The National Weather Service announced a winter storm warning that began at 11 p.m. last night and will stay in effect until 8 p.m today, with an expectation of 12 to 16 inches of snow across southeast New England. 

Named “Winter Storm Skylar,” the nor’easter will mostly impact coastal New England throughout the day, according to a report yesterday from the Weather Channel. Wind gusts may potentially reach 60 mph or higher for the eastern Massachusetts coast. 

A statement from the National Weather Service announced that power outages should not be as widespread as they were in prior winter storms Riley and Quinn, which knocked out power for about 800,000 people in the Northeast. 

Skylar started as a storm in the Plains on Saturday, with light snowfall across the Mississippi Valley, and spread across the Appalachians over the weekend, according to the Weather Channel. Prior to hitting the Boston area, snow draped the East Coast yesterday as it made its way up from Tennessee and North Carolina. 

Skylar is a winter storm  that underwent “bombogenesis,” or a rapidly intensifying area of low pressure, which activates heavy precipitation and strong winds. Also known as a “weather bomb,” this weather occurrence results from large temperature gradients, either between cold-continental air masses and warm sea-surface temperatures, or cold surface air meeting the warmer air of the South, according to the Weather Channel. 

Nor’easters are common on the East Coast due to Canada’s cold air flow swinging southeast and meeting warm air from the Atlantic’s northward current from the Gulf of Mexico. 

Though a cold and snowy week, temperatures are expected to rise by the end and hit a high of 53 F on Sunday.

—Michelle Dang