Got Us by The Tail

Posted by Pete Bouchard

Tons of sun got us back to the mid 60s today. Plenty of high clouds too.

Those clouds are with a weakening warm front to the southwest. Few showers may sneak in here tonight, but the closest they come are Worcester, Hopkinton and Brockton.

Long range, all eyes are on the tropics as we await the latest track on Tropical Storm Sandy. Her track has us doing backflips in the Weather Center. There's a lot to consider on this storm. And before we hop on the Hype Train, we want to be sure where it's going.

This isn't like a winter storm. We can see those coming days in advance, and when you're in a groove, you're in a groove: snowy patterns are easy to see. These animals are like a cross between a tropical system and a nor'easter. They have characteristics of each - not the least of which is a highly variable track, speed and intensity.

Reason being, the storm is steered by both the tropical weather systems and the run-of-the-mill jetstream that meanders through the United States. (Winter storms are only steered by the jetstream over the U.S.) But here's what gets me about the storm and how the models are treating it: phasing. One model suggests that the storm will actually be absorbed by the jetstream right in the Mid Atlantic States this weekend. That is highly unusual (typically happens at high latitudes), and seems very heavy-handed. Last time I saw true phasing was during the Blizzard of '93 and of course, the Perfect Storm.

With that said, even if we do phase, the outcome will be MUCH weaker than either of those storms. Nonetheless, we're talking about a big wind and rain maker: torrents of tropical rain, winds to 50-60 mph, and coastal flooding/beach erosion.

Still plenty to play out in the coming days, but the weather team is on top of it and will have the latest word every step of the way.

Pete

Thunderous Start to Workweek

Posted by Pete Bouchard

Heat and a bit of humidity fed a strong - and sometimes severe - line of thunderstorms today. By the time the dinner hour rolled around (6pm-ish), the storms had consolidated into a line. Everyone got a drink of water and a big drop in temperatures - some falling nearly 20 degrees in minutes!

Rear-view Mirror

Posted by Jeremy Reiner

As we exit our recent soggy pattern we do so with one more weather system capable of producing scattered showers & t-storms. This cool front is a slow mover (aren't we all on Monday mornings?!) up in northern New England right now. This slow moving front will settle into our part of the world very late this afternoon bringing a chance of some scattered t-storms between 4-pm. Until then you have a great day with mostly sunny skies along with temperatures in the low 80s. For some, a bit on the humid side for much of the day.

We'll Take Average

Posted by Chris Lambert

Well, we had a lot of clouds this afternoon, but at least not a lot of rain.  Sure a few showers were out there, scattered about, but hopefully they didn't ruin any plans you had with dad.  Temps made it into the mid to upper 70s, which is close to the average for this time of year.  In fact, the whole 7-day forecast is within 5 degrees of average each and every day.  That means lots of upper 70s and lower 80s on the board.  Not bad being average this time of year, huh?

Happy Father's Day

Posted by Chris Lambert

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there, and to my dad as well.  So what's on tap for the day?  Golf, grilling, just hanging out? Whatever it is, all and all, it's still a pretty good day for dad weather-wise.  I wish I could say the Father's Day forecast exactly repeats Saturday, but we do have a few late afternoon showers to track.