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First Storm After Sandy Bringing More Wind, Rain

BOSTON (CBS) - After the beating from Sandy and clouded subsequent days, it was nice to see a greater amount of sunshine today as temperatures reached the lower 50s in many areas.

With plenty of cold air bleeding out of Canada, I do not see any warmer than average days in the week ahead. In fact, in sharp contrast to last November, the evolving factors are leaning in the direction that this one may end up colder than average.

More immediately, temperatures will be running up to 10 degrees below the average for early November in the next several days. After tonight's drop to the middle 30s, they will rebound to near or just over 50 tomorrow with a sunny to partly cloudy sky.

Colder air seeping in from the north plus the arrival of another cold front from Canada on Monday afternoon means that it will fail to exceed the middle 40s Monday and Tuesday.

Sunshine will rule both days with a clear sky possible on Election Day. GET OUT AND VOTE! With a zone of high pressure poised right over the region, it will be tranquil with a gentle breeze and a very cold start near 25 degrees!

Meantime, we'll be watching a bundle of energy in the jet stream. It will dive over a strong ridge in the western U.S. and deepen into the trough over the eastern part of the nation. Most signs support a closing-off upper air low pressure circulation leading to bombogenesis off the North Carolina coast on Wednesday.

The timing couldn't be worse for NJ and NYC following the devastation created by Superstorm Sandy. Weakened coastline will probably be battered by more storm surge and high waves again later Wednesday and Thursday. Presently, the storm is projected to bottom out south of Long Island Thursday with central pressure near 28.9″ rather than 27.8″ in Sandy.

Neverthless, linked with a strong high pressure system in the Canadian Maritimes, the tight pressure gradient will yield gale to storm-force winds. Bear in mind that this development is still about 4 days away so it is premature to be fully confident of the specifics right now.

Speculatively, the potential exists for heavy rain and northeasterly winds of 25-55 mph or so in this area. A coastal front could set up enhancing the rainfall. The positive news is that the scheduled heights of the high tides are lower next week than this past week.

By the way, hopefully, there will not be any major storms November 12-17 when the tides are extra high due to the new moon.

Borderline temperatures may enable a heavy wet snowfall over the higher elevations of the Berkshires and the Greens and Whites. It will be interesting to see how this whole scenario evolves over the next several days. I will pray for a tamer solution than what I am examining currently.

In any event, this system will weaken and drift east-northeastward so the rain will become more showery and misty next Friday followed by nicer weather in the 50s next weekend.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

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