End Game

Posted by Pete Bouchard

There are a lot of places I could start this blog. The missteps, where the forecast went off track, my personal thoughts on the weather models, but the bottom line is...

...I busted.

Bigtime.

Every forecaster has his/her flub, but I can't recall one this bad in a long time. I was hoodwinked into believing a storm scooting into the Atlantic wouldn't produce nearly two feet of snow across the Commonwealth. And in my defense, that is true in many respects. How many times has a storm darted southeast of Nantucket leaving us unscathed? And who would call for those amounts with a storm hundreds of miles offshore?!?

This one was different. We were lulled into believing the storm played its best hand yesterday: snow fell and melted on contact. Big gaps opened up and the sun briefly poked out. Stay the course, we thought.

But the storm stalled. Then it hooked into a batch of moisture - perhaps subtropical - and catapulted it back into Mass. The curtain closed around 5-6am, the curtain closed, and we were doomed.

Not since Dec. 2005  (a much stronger storm mind you that hit in the evening rush with gusts near 100mph on Cape Cod) did I scramble to move the numbers, figure out what was going on, and figure out when it would end.

Been quite a season.

Anyway the bottom line is the evening drive is much better (but not perfect) than the AM drive. Snow shuts down from north to south, and we might even see some sun before it sets. 

Weekend is looking much better (give it until noon Saturday before the wind shut down along the coast/Capes) with sun and milder temperatures.

Stop in and visit me under my rock.

Pete

For snowfall amounts in your neighborhood click here.

Come On Ride The Train

Posted by Pete Bouchard

Heavy rain is on the move! All afternoon long it was stalled over Western Massachusetts and Connecticut. Heavy pulses of rain traveled over the same towns and cities - a process meteorologists call "training" - resulting in flash flooding in some counties to our west.

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.