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Idyllic Fall Week, With a Frosty Interlude

If the tropics aren't active along the East Coast this time of year, it can get awfully quiet. And such is the case this week (probably not much complaining about that!). The big blue H will be in control all week long, meaning high pressure living large over the Northeast. That means chilly nights, and a lot of sunny days.

The only weather issue on the radar, so to speak, is the frost potential for the next couple of nights. The only thing saving us from a more widespread event Monday night is the fact that high pressure is still building in, and the winds won't go calm for long (if at all). That keeps the atmosphere mixed, and the coldest air from settling right on the ground. Taking a look at the dew points, the air mass moving in is quite dry. So some towns dipping into the 30s is going to happen. This is most likely well to the north and west of Boston.

frost tonight

So if you spent the lovely weekend buying some new mums for the yard, make sure to cover them up! The plants can survive cold temps just fine, but the blossoms will die if touched by frost. And if you have any tender vegetation (annuals, vegetable gardens, etc) you'll want to bring them in or cover them up in the areas under a Frost Advisory. You'll likely have to do it again on Tuesday night with similar temperatures expected.

avgfrost

Boston has an *outside* shot of reaching a record low Tuesday morning, but I think we'll come up a few degrees short. The record is 45 degrees set in 1986. We'll probably end up dipping to about 48 by the time the sun comes up. But we'll keep an eye on it!

reclow

A week like this will also get the fall foliage train running. With several nights in the 30s across interior New England, I'm willing to be some decent color will be in effect by the weekend around the Green & White Mountains and interior Maine. Below is a great live tracker from Yankee Magazine. I know that I saw some decent color already showing up just on my drive out to the Big E this weekend, and this cool weather will do the trick in speeding up the process. Although not cold enough for leaves to drop, which is great news.

Otherwise, sprawling high pressure dominates the week. Sun by day, chilly at night, barely a cloud through Thursday. Not too shabby! Each day will be slightly milder than the next. I'm forecasting temperatures on the chilly side because with limited wind, the atmosphere won't mix much until Thursday afternoon. Some high clouds may start filtering in on Friday, but otherwise a fine day. And while clouds will increase on Saturday, the rain may hold off until late Saturday night. That's our next chance for precipitation, which may impact the Patriots game (again) in Foxboro. Stay tuned!

 

A note on the flooding in Colorado - astounding numbers continue to come in from the Boulder area. The National Weather Service now says that Boulder has reached its wettest year on record, and there are 3+ months still to go! They've recorded 29.65" of rain this year. But the VAST majority of that has fallen this month. An astonishing 16.69" of rainfall, more than TRIPLE the previous wettest September on record. The records there go back to 1893.

The flooding is truly historic, and catastrophic in many cases. And what's even more striking is that this area was in a terrible drought very recently. This week last year, 100% of the state was in *at least* 'Severe Drought,' as rated by the NOAA/USDA Drought Monitor. The pattern this week should finally give them a bit of a break, with generally drier conditions through at least Friday.

drought

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