A Changeable Holiday Weekend
How sweet it was! After much gloomy weather over the past week, we deserved this fabulous Friday as the WBZ WeatherBug Network of about 135 locations revealed maximum temperatures in the range of 74-80 degrees! It, however, was not record-breaking because warmer weather in the 80s occurred on this date in 1922 when Boston struck 87 degrees. Speaking of 87, do you remember what happened on Columbus Day Weekend last year? We enjoyed 3 days of summer on October 8-10, 2011. Boston's highs on these days were 82, 87 and 85! In fact, the 87 eclipsed the previous record of 82 set in 1935. The fall of 2011 was most unusual for its persistent amazing warmth. This resulted in a fall foliage dud. That is not happening across northern New England this year thanks to several cold nights over the past few weeks. My family and I spent 4 days at the Mount Washington Resort in Bretton Woods over last weekend and I can tell you that the fall foliage color was stunning. It is the most spectacular, vibrant color that I have seen in several years. Check out all of the information including online sites and foliage hotlines via New England Leaf Alert. Despite a past peak condition over some of the higher elevations in the northern mountains, you will find plentiful fall foliage color this weekend. Sadly, the weather will be much different from one year ago but it will certainly not be a washout.
A cold frontal boundary is pressing eastward from the eastern Great Lakes. The main thrust of clouds and scattered showers will occur across northern New England later tonight and tomorrow. Eventually, a sliver of showers will likely push across Massachusetts in the afternoon and arrive in Boston closer to 4-5pm. Prior to that, enough sunshine through varying amounts of cloudiness will boost temperatures back into the middle to upper 70s again. Unlike today when it was nearly calm, the wind will freshen to 10-25 mph tomorrow from the south-southwest. This will keep south-facing coastal areas closer to 70 degrees. Following the frontal passage early tomorrow evening, it will become partly cloudy and cooler with lows of 45-50. As the front moves just offshore, a disturbance in the upper levels will trigger a weak wave of low pressure over the Tennessee Valley. This system will be steered northeastward to provide wet weather in the region mainly Sunday afternoon and evening. Expect temperatures rising to the upper 50s then before falling back to near 55 at Gillette Stadium as the Pats take on the Broncos for a 4:25pm kickoff. The wind should be light northeasterly under 10 mph during that game. The system will exit by dawn on Monday so the sky will become partly to mostly sunny that morning with a scattering of small puffy clouds in the afternoon. Despite the return of sunshine, it will not warm up past the upper 50s with a brisk morning northwesterly wind. After that, a sprawling high pressure system will set up over the Northeast promoting radiational cooling and frosty locations at dawn on Tuesday. Bright sunshine on that day will enable a recovery to the lower 60s. It should be a bit milder Wednesday ahead of the next cold front charging out of Canada. This might release a few showers mainly up north later Wednesday followed by some sunshine and lower 60s Thursday.
Looking way ahead, the strongest cold front will pass through New England one week from today. A chunk of chilly air will be rushing into the region during the day. It's a bit premature to get a handle on the precise arrival. If it surges through early Friday, afternoon temperatures will struggle to reach 50. There will be gusty northwesterly winds with lots of snow showers probable over the northern peaks! The wind and cold will continue into much of next weekend with highs on Saturday, October 13, in the range of 48-54 followed by overnight lows in the upper 20s and 30s except lower 40s in Boston. Brrrr!
Joe Joyce will deliver his AccuWeather Forecast tomorrow morning and I shall follow later in the day.
Have a happy and safe holiday weekend.
