Earlier this week, temperatures surpassed 70 but then the wind shifted direction and blew in from the chilly Atlantic Ocean resulting in 40s since Wednesday. Well, the switch will be flipped again and a big warmup to at least 70 is projected for tomorrow except over all of the New England South Coast including Cape Cod, outer Cape Ann plus the ME coast where upper 40s to upper 50s are more likely. After tomorrow, another backdoor cold front will introduce an onshore breeze again in eastern MA but it will not be as chilly as recent days. Expect 50s along the coast to 60s inland Monday and Tuesday with a bump up into the lower 70s on Wednesday as the land breeze returns. There will be a very warm air mass over the Northeast most of the coming week but surface cooling and warming will be dictated by the wind direction. Boston’s record high temperatures for the next 7 days, March 18-24, are 70, 72, 79, 83, 72, 78 and 72 respectively. A record high is possible tomorrow and quite likely Thursday. I am predicting 70-75 for tomorrow and 73-78 on Thursday. There is a slight risk that a local sea breeze could cool off some east-facing beaches but I feel that a southwesterly land breeze will be more common despite its low speed of 5-15 mph. Later in the week, the air will become somewhat more humid as a high pressure system off the Mid-Atlantic pumps a more moist airmass into the region. Expect varying amounts of clouds and sunshine over the next several days. Today’s relatively thin layer of low clouds burned off by late morning over much of ME and Cape Cod but stubbornly lingered to late afternoon in many other places. There is a risk of redevelopment of some of this low cloudiness tonight in places especially from the South Coast up to the MA Pike but it should burn off swiftly most areas early tomorrow yielding bright warming sunshine. Although a few spotty showers could occur in western New England later Monday, it is more likely that showers will arrive north and west of Boston later Friday then press into southeastern sections next Saturday. After that, a shot of cold air will rush in here from Canada so a week from tomorrow, it’s back to reality with high temperatures near or slightly over 40. That chill will linger into the first part of the final week of this month.

The vernal equinox occurs early Tuesday, March 20, at 1:14am. Due to this being a leap year and, to a lesser degree, other factors, this will be the earliest start to spring in 116 years! On the other hand, for the most part, it seems like spring started during autumn.

How are your NCAA brackets looking? My picks of UNLV, Duke, Long Beach State and Missouri have busted my bracket! Watch March Madness on CBS/WBZ-TV.

Joe Joyce delivers his AccuWeather Forecast in the morning and I shall return later in the day.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and good luck with your bracket(s)!