Dramatic Changes Again
It was a wild night and early morning as the wind gusted to 50-75 mph over much of the region except in sheltered valley locations. This caused snapped branches and limbs and even uprooted a few trees causing some structural damage and power outages for thousands of folks. The strongest winds occurred over the higher hilltops and along exposed coastal locations.This wind is a result of a large difference in air pressure over the Northeast. In fact, the air pressure is extremely low with barometric readings down to or just below 29"! The pressure will be rising rapidly later this morning and afternoon. It felt like a summer morning with the warm and humid conditions. After many record high temperatures across New England yesterday, several more were broken before dawn today such as Worcester which hit 59 degrees eclipsing the 57 in 1988. There were no new records in Boston the past couple of days although it has been close with yesterday's 60 shy of the 63 in 1914 and today's 60 just shy of the 62 set in 1913. This warmth easily destroyed the snow cover over the region and caused deteriorating changeable conditions on the ski slopes of New England.
This second crazy January thaw will end abruptly this morning as a cold front barrels eastward across the region. It will plow across Worcester County between roughly 8 and 9am then into the Boston area closer to 10-11am. As the frontal passage occurs, there will be a quick temperature plunge of about 10 degrees or so. So expect it to chill off through the 40s as the afternoon progresses. The downpours that occurred during the first half of the morning commute have been shoved seaward with only a brief perhaps robust shower possible as the frontal boundary races through. After that, there will be some clearing with some sunshine taking over by late morning and afternoon although there will be varying amounts of patchy clouds racing eastward as the day goes on. The HIGH WIND WARNING will be down graded to a WIND ADVISORY later this morning through the afternoon. The shifting wind from southerly to westerly happens with the frontal passage and the speeds through the afternoon will still run 20-40 mph. It's going to be a completely different feel to the day from the morning commute to the afternoon commute. It's back to reality again tonight as it chills to the lower 20s then rises back up to near or slightly over 30 tomorrow as the sky features varying amounts of clouds and sunshine with just a risk of a few isolated flurries amidst a cold, brisk wind.
Looking ahead, Saturday will be sunny to partly cloudy with highs only in the upper 20s to near 30 so we go from temperatures being about 25 degrees above the average early today back down to about a half-dozen degrees below the average this weekend! After that, there is the potential of a clipper system charging out of the upper Plains States to the Great Lakes then redeveloping and reorganizing near New England on Sunday. At that time, there will likely be some light snow with a chance of some accumulation of just a very few inches. This system really gets its act together once it exits later Sunday so more cold air flows in on Monday with some sunshine. The next weaker system may trigger some snow showers on Tuesday.
The trails and slopes of New England will undergo changes over the next several days. Obviously, the thaw and rain caused a bit of damage so the wet conditions of this morning will switch to some icing as temperatures plunge to the teens over the mountains tonight. This return of cold will enable snow making to return. Additionally, a few snow showers are possible over the northern mountains later today and tomorrow and perhaps Saturday too. A really big snowfall is needed but that is not foreseen although some light snow may occur on Sunday. With nightly grooming, conditions will improve again for the weekend but there will be some terrain especially many of the glades and other non-snowmaking trails that will not be open. You must be prepared for icy and thin patches while other trails will be groomed and in great shape. Mountain temperatures will rise up to the teens to lower 20s this weekend with a birsk and cold wind so dress accordingly and have a happy and safe time on the slopes.
Todd Gutner delivers his latest AccuWeather Forecast by early this evening.
Make it a great day!
