Don't Get Used To It

Posted by Chris Lambert

Let's be honest, the past winter and a half, hasn't been tough to take across New England.  Cold doesn't sustain itself, what snow falls, melts fairly quickly, and temperatures have averaged 4-5 degrees above the norm. 

It all has to do with how pressure patterns across the northern hemisphere set-up.  When the Arctic has a strong polar vortex (low pressure across it), cold air tends to stay bottled up across Alaska, northern Canada and the Arctic. That's what we've seen quite a bit of recently, with only brief breaks in that pattern.  When high pressure builds across the West Coast, Alaska, Greenland and much of the Arctic, cold air is displaced toward lower latitudes, including the central and eastern United States.  That's similar to a pattern we saw in Jan and Feb of 2011,  parts of the 2009/2010 winter and in mid Jan-Feb of 2007.   This is also similar to the set-up next week, and perhaps more often than not, over the next several weeks.

In this more wintry pattern, the obvious:  the cold is coming.  What's tough to pin down, is the storm track.  Meaning, while I'm highly confident in cold air blasting into New England this week, with perhaps more early February cold spells, I'm less confident in guaranteeing big snow storms.  Although, you need the cold to get the snow, so at least that's in place.  Sometimes it can just be cold and dry though, like much of the mid Jan-Feb of 2007 we had.  With the snow... we'll wait to see what happens.

A couple chances of snow are in the forecast with some snow late Monday night and Tuesday morning, steadiest over SE Mass, and perhaps a more widespread and heavier storm possible Friday. 

The coldest stretch of weather will be Tuesday night - Thursday morning.  Expect near 0 degrees readings in the morning, and teens for highs Wednesday afternoon.

So don't get too used to the milder air this weekend, it's days are numbered.  Oh... and go Pats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unsettling

Posted by Jeremy Reiner

Another day where we have cool, ocean air battling warmer land air leading to a clash of air. That means clouds, drizzle, fog, humidity (frizzy hair) for much of the day. It's not a washout though. The highest chance of rain is this morning--until 9:30am and then later this afternoon (after 3pm). In between, you will see a lot of clouds but also some sunshine at times. Even limited sun will be able to shove temps well into the 70s. This warm & humid air is what will lead to another round of showers & t-storms later today. Some of the storms will be intense. Like the past two days the strongest storms will be in western New England. Only isolated showers/ thunderstorms are expected along the coastline later today. Sox game will have the risk of some showers but they should be able to play that game. Welcome back Tito!

Saved by The Sea Breeze

Posted by Pete Bouchard

Although my forecast was busted today, there was one good thing that came out of it.

Stability.

That gray overcast that hung over the eastern half of the Commonwealth provided a stablizing influence to our atmosphere. The cool air blowing in from the ocean kept the temperatures in the upper 50s and low 60s all the way back to Metrowest. While that makes for lousy short-and-t-shirt weather, it is poison to thunderstorms.

Wild & Wacky

Posted by Jeremy Reiner

Wild temperatures yesterday---from the 80s down into the low 60s in just an hour AND some heavy duty thunderstorms. The reason was a cool front that dropped in from Maine. That front is in western New England this morning and it's a chameleon as it will become a warm front and try to warm things back up during the day.

Storms, Heat, Sea Breezes

Posted by Pete Bouchard

What a day! Breakneck temperature swings, thunder, tornadoes in Western Mass....and we're still in late May!