Cold, Colder and Coldest (Snow too)

Posted by Chris Lambert

The wind huffs and puffs again today with gusts out of the WSW, turning WNW 40-50mph from late morning, through the afternoon and into the early evening.  So yes, it'll be a windy day at Gillette, adding a bit of a chill factor to the air.  Basically count on wind chill factors a good 10 degrees lower than air temperatures.  Tailgates run near 45 degrees, but near 35 for kickoff and in the upper 20s by the time Brady takes a knee to run off the clock for the W.

The cooling trend to end the night is the leading edge of cold air that continues to get colder into mid-week, with the coldest air in the past 2 years settling in on Wednesday.  How cold is that?  January 24th, 2011 we hit -2 for a low in Boston and 13 for the high.  I don't think we'll far off that, maybe just a few degree warmer. 

Not only do we deal with the cold, we have snow to talk about.  An upper-level low drifts in from the west Monday night, providing enough instability to bring in some flurries and light snow by day's end.  Things get interesting overnight... to say the least.   The upper-level energy captures moisture from an ocean storm far out, draws some of that moisture in, and with instability in the atmosphere set-up across New England thanks to cold air rushing in aloft, snow becomes steady predawn Tuesday, through Tuesday morning.   In this type of situation (Norlun Trough or inverted trough.. technical name) snow amounts from town to town can vary quite a bit.  I'm thinking 1-3" well inland, and 3-5" near the coast and into SE NH.  Within that 3-5" there is a possibility of localized bands setting up, where a few towns could well exceed the 5".  To pinpoint the towns in line for that now is a tough promise since we need to know exactly where that trough sets up. Right now, NE Mass and SE NH has the highest chance to out perform on this storm.  The snow will be light and fluffy, and temps fall into the teens Tuesday afternoon.

Tuesday night-Thursday look cold, in fact, mornings start near 0 Wednesday and Thursday, and highs Wednesday hit 15 if you're lucky.  Then more snow Friday!  Welcome back winter, right?

Go Pats!!!!!!!!!!!!   

Like A Waterfall

Posted by Pete Bouchard

If you were caught in those 'cloudbursts' today, you had more than you could handle in the rain department. Torrents fell in a short amount of time - what we deem 'flash flooding' in the weather biz. Since it happens suddenly, the National Weather Service has adopted the acronym TADD:

Bam! Pow!

Posted by Jeremy Reiner

Bam. Pow! Those were some nasty storms last evening with some towns in metrowest & the city itself blasted with locally heavy rain, hail, lightning and strong wind gusts. A cool front is the culprit and that front will linger across the region again today. That means another round of some scattered showers & t-storms likely.

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.