Temporary Chill
Happy Friday! As advertised all week, today was destined to be the coolest day of the week following yesterday's backdoor cold frontal passage which produced dramatic temperatures drops of 10 up to 20 degrees in less than 20 minutes. Before the arrival of the front, some locations had the warmest day so far this season with near or slightly above 80 degrees farther northwest of Boston. It's back to reality today and tomorrow as the chilly ocean wind blowing in from the east-northeast will rule the scene with much less impact on Sunday through Tuesday. The speed will freshen up to 10-22 mph today, subside tonight and refreshen to 10-20 mph tomorrow. Sunday's wind direction will be more east-southeasterly at 6-12 mph resulting in higher temperatures along the coast. The omega block is essentially still in place protecting the region from any intruding systems. Within that block, a stronger high pressure system surged southwestward yesterday from the Maritimes to replace the high pressure cell that had been our friend all week. This new cell will park over the region and slightly shift south over the weekend so it will be ridged right over southern New England on Sunday into Monday. Most of eastern MA is located south of the ridge line into tomorrow so that makes us vulnerable to parcels of low clouds shifting southwestward in the low-level flow from out over the Gulf of ME. After tomorrow, much of that cloudiness will be forced southward out of the region and with a dry air mass over us, bright sunshine should be prevalent in most of the region on Sunday and Monday. It will be a great weekend for hiking and mountain climbing with few if any clouds and light winds on most of the summits even Mount Washington. Surface temperatures today will max out near 50 on outer Cape Cod ranging up to slightly over 50 on much of the rest of Cape Cod to the lower 50s near the rest of the regional coastline up to the upper 50s in Metro West to 60-64 in parts of western Middlesex County and Worcester County extending into exterior NH. Over the weekend, it will turn a bit milder tomorrow and then warmer on Sunday through Tuesday. Temperatures will range from the middle 50s along the coast to the middle 60s well inland tomorrow with a bump up to near 60 near the ocean and up to 70 or so farther inland on Sunday. Further warming to the middle 70s is anticipated for Monday and Tuesday.
Looking ahead, after Monday's sunshine, the cloudiness will be increasing on Tuesday in response to the breakdown of the omega block and the restructuring of the jet stream. The changing steering currents are expected to propel a storm northeastward up the eastern seaboard from the Southeastern States. This system will be generated by an intensifying upper air closed low pressure circulation in the Gulf States. This feature will evolve from the present strip of rain and wintry precipitation that has been plaguing the central portion of the nation for the past few days. Record May snowfall has occurred in several states from WI, MN and IA into western MO and northwestern AR. For us, it is our first opportunity to receive some beneficial rain in about 3 weeks. With the elevated fire danger, the high levels of tree pollen and the thirsty lawns and gardens, it will be most appreciated.
Todd Gutner will post a blog early this evening and Joe Joyce will be on duty tomorrow through Sunday.
Have a happy and safe weekend.
