Remarkable Recovery
Tuesday wasn't terrible but it certainly wasn't terrific either. The high temperatures of 40-45 were 15-17 degrees below the average for April 23rd! At 1000 feet above sea level at Worcester's airport, the high temperature of 37 broke the record of 38 set in 1930 as the lowest high temperature for the date. For much of the area, it was more of a nuisance mist and light rain event in cold air that was flowing in from the chilly ocean. The amounts of rain ranged from practically nothing in western Worcester County up to a few hundredths of an inch in metro west communities to a quarter of an inch near the I-95 corridor to a third to half-inch on outer Cape Ann to South Shore locations ranging up to 1-2 inches over most of Cape Cod. The windswept soaking nor'easter is departing the Cape this morning taking its envelope of moisture and 45 mph winds. As the storm passes into the Gulf of ME, a dramatic transformation will occur this morning as the dank, damp, murky conditions morph into developing sunshine from west to east as the low overcast begins to break with the arrival of drier air. The gusty wind along the coast and especially Cape Cod will slacken and switch into a southerly direction under the influence of an approaching frontal boundary from NY and PA. Despite the gusty wind along the coast this morning, there could be a period of onshore winds from the east-southeast at the coast early this afternoon before the southerlies kick in. That advancing frontal boundary is acting as a kicker to boot the storm out to sea quickly enough for sunshine to raise temperatures sharply this afternoon. I expect high temperatures near 5 pm of 68-73 but south-facing coastal areas might be cooled by late afternoon. The wind speed then will be in the range of 10-20 mph.
The frontal boundary will trigger a swath of showers and scattered embedded thunderstorms in NY and PA today but it appears that much of this action will weaken as it enters New England tonight. Nevertheless, much of the area should receive a passing shower from west to east after midnight toward dawn. There could a few showers exiting Cape Cod just after daybreak then sunshine takes over again tomorrow. With the frontal passage, the wind will shift to westerly and blow up to 10-20 mph during the morning commute with light variable winds turning onshore from midday into the afternoon. After near 50 degrees to start off the morning, it will warm up to the middle 60s and probably turn cooler along the coast in the afternoon. After that, the next weathemaker will be a potent compact upper level disturbance which has the potential of triggering some convective activity on Friday. In other words, I am expecting some scattered showers and thunderstorms starting in the morning and ending in the afternoon. Once this feature exits, most signs indicate that high pressure at the surface and aloft is destined to govern the area for many days. Sunshine will rule although some weak perturbations in the upper flow may produce some feathery cloudiness every now and then. The wind will be essentially light through the period from Friday well into next week so that means that the coastal plain is vulnerable to a cooling sea breeze from time to time while well inland locations warm up through 65-75 later this weekend into next week with overnight lows in the range of 35-45.
You may be complaining about our spring weather but it could be so much worse. The upper Mississippi Valley westward through the Rockies have had no spring-like weather at all. There have been numerous major snow storms there over the past month. As examples, April 2013 has been the snowiest month ever in Duluth, MN with 51" and in Rapid City, SD at about 40" of the white stuff! Marquette, MI has a current snow depth of 30"! The snow cover in this nation is close to three times the average! There were more record low temperatures last week than any other week over the past 13 years! During that period, there were 3,098 cold-related records! Sheridan, WY plunged to -1 yesterday which beats the old record by 23 degrees! OMG. Now how's that for the global warming alarmists?
Todd Gutner posts his blog early this evening and I shall return early tomorrow morning.
Make it a great day!
