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New Month, New Weather Pattern

Jan30REWINDJanuary is finished and we all know it was a wild month featuring huge swings in temperature and above average snowfall. For Boston, there were 15 days when the temperature never reached 32 degrees but, on the flip side, there were 5 days over 50 degrees! As a result, the mean temperature for the month was, surprisingly, only 1.6 degrees below average which is contrasted against January 2013 at 2.5 degrees above the average when there were 3 days at 60 degrees or higher. For this January, the high was 59 and the low was 2 while many outlying areas had a few subzero mornings. Boston's snowfall of 21.8" brings the seasonal total to 33.5" compared to 8.8" at this time last year. That was followed by the blizzard on February 8-9 dumping 24.8" in the city with another almost 10 inches the rest of the month. Looking forward through February, the average high temperature rises from 37 at the beginning of the month to 41 at the end of the month. The average low temperature also rises from 22 to 27. The average snowfall is 11.2". The sunrise occurs at 6:58 on the 1st and back to 6:21 on the 28th while the sunset occurs at 4:58 on the 1st and up to 5:33 on the 28th for a daylight increase of 72 minutes.

SnowfallFEB3With the beginning of a new month, we have an interesting new weather pattern shaping up for at least a couple of weeks that favors less harsh cold but more frequent storms. As a matter of fact, there is potential for 3 perhaps 4 storms in the 8 days ahead! The first storm will be minor but it is destined to deliver a coating up to 2 or 3 inches over southern New England on Monday. The snow will commence mainly after most of the morning commute is over. The second storm poised to pounce on the region starts later Tuesday night and will be tapering off Wednesday afternoon. This system has much more upper level support and plentiful moisture to work with. Consequently, it looks like a plowable snow event for much of the region. The various models are concurring on the trajectory of this storm with more consistency so it is becoming increasingly confident that several inches up to perhaps 6-12 of stickier snow will pile up. There will be a break on Thursday and Friday to be followed by 1 or 2 storms Saturday and Sunday. That potential is too far out to be confident about specifics at this time. In the meantime, enjoy a relatively mild night tonight and temperatures which will flirt with 50 degrees tomorrow before a cold front arrives during the early to middle portion of the afternoon. It would generate nothing more than a brief shower in a few locations.

For those of us interested in alpine and nordic skiing, snowshoeing and snowmobiling, it is time to get excited because it finally looks like some decent perhaps significant snow in several installments is on the way in the week going forward. While plentiful cold air provided optimum conditions for making snow in January, there has been little natural snow for any non-snowmaking trails. There is, in fact, little to almost no snow in many locations and that has put the skids on glade skiing, cross-country skiing and snowmobiling. Hopefully, February will change all of that!

Danielle Niles will be checking out the forecast for the rest of winter from Ms. G at Drumlin Farm in Lincoln tomorrow morning, Groundhog Day. I will be back in studio with the latest 7-Day WBZ AccuWeather Forecast. Please join us!

Have a nice Sunday!

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