The Week Ahead

145 Comments

4:40PM

It’s Christmas Week. Maybe 2 weekends included in it, with the holiday itself being on Wednesday. There is a lot to cover, but most importantly are the events ongoing now through Monday, because some areas of southern New Hampshire and even valley areas of north central and northeastern Massachusetts will see some icing issues. The low level cold air that has been advertised arrived from the north pretty much on schedule, from New Hampshire into Massachusetts, with a boundary between this as a very warm air mass to the south setting up somewhere south and southwest of Boston Sunday afternoon. Precipitation has been confined mostly to northern New England, where it is much colder, with moderate to major icing, causing some damage and power outages. Here in southeastern New England, there are areas of fog and drizzle and a few areas of rain, but the bigger story has been the contrast of temperatures from the 30s in northeastern MA right into Boston, to the 60s in much of interior southeastern MA and RI. This boundary will not move too much through early Monday, other than to sink a bit further to the south. On Monday, a stronger cold front from the west will sweep through the region, though with slow to moderate pace, so rain and valley icing will still be a likely occurrence before everything ends from west to east, possibly as some snow showers when colder air comes back in aloft.

Once we get to Tuesday (Christmas Eve), the cold air will be established again, and a trough of low pressure moving through the region from west to east will likely bring cloudiness and the threat of some snow shower activity. A cold and dry Christmas Day is expected Wednesday, as the timing of the next system that I thought may arrive that day will be pushed back until around Thursday, with some snow showers again possible then. Another dry and bright day is expected Friday as high pressure moves in. A warm front may produce some cloudiness but not likely any meaningful precipitation for Saturday, before an Arctic cold front brings yet another chance of snow showers and a blast of colder air about next Sunday.

Forecast for southeastern New England…

TONIGHT: Overcast. Areas of dense fog. Periods of rain, especially north of the Mass Pike, with icing likely interior valleys of east central and northeastern MA and southern NH. Lows around 30 interior valleys to middle 30s most areas except 40-50 far southern areas. Wind light N-NE most areas, calm at times, except SW 5-15 MPH near the South Coast.

MONDAY: Cloudy. Areas of fog. Periods of rain except freezing rain interior valleys of MA and NH in the morning. Highs 35-40 most areas except falling through the 40s in southern areas. Wind variable 5-15 MPH becoming mostly N to NW.

MONDAY NIGHT: Mostly cloudy. Chance of rain or snow showers Cape Cod and South Coast, snow showers elsewhere. Lows 25-35, coldest northwest of Boston. Wind NW 10-20 MPH.

TUESDAY: Variably cloudy. Chance of snow showers. Highs 30-35. Wind NW 10-20 MPH.

TUESDAY NIGHT – CHRISTMAS EVE: Partly cloudy. Chance of snow showers. Lows 10-15 except 15-20 South Coast. Wind N 5-15 MPH.

WEDNESDAY – CHRISTMAS DAY: Mostly sunny. Highs in the 20s. Wind N 10-20 MPH.

THURSDAY: Variably cloudy. Chance of snow showers. Lows 10-18. Highs 25-33.

FRIDAY: Mostly sunny. Lows 10-18. Highs 25-33.

SATURDAY: Mostly cloudy. Lows 20-28. Highs 33-40.

SUNDAY: Variably cloudy. Chance of snow showers. Temperatures falling 30s to 20s.

145 thoughts on “The Week Ahead”

  6. Thanks TK. We are now down to 47. DP of 42. Has been steadily dropping for the past 90 minutes.

    How is your Mom doing with her hand?

    1. She is doing very well!
      I have been helping her with lots of holiday prep so she doesn’t overdo it. But her rehab has been smooth so far. 🙂

        1. Good. Got a cortisone shot on Thursday for her back and so far so good. She has a follow up cat scan soon for her pancreas. Thanks for asking!

  12. Payton Manning. Sports dislike? Yes. He’s the enemy. Of course I don’t root for him. However, I respect his talent and he has earned his reputation. Who is someone in sports worthy of true dislike? Let’s try somebody like Matt Cooke from the NHL (Pittsburgh Penguins), going out on the ice on a regular basis trying to injure people and end their careers. BIG difference between a thug like him and a great player like Manning.

    Now, ask me about Manning vs. Brady? I’ll take Brady. K-thanks!

    1. Of course you are right. A friend who is also a wonderful equestrian coach taught our daughter as we taught her. You always respect the greats. They are never the enemy. When you play against them (or in her case ride) you want them at their best because, if you come out ahead, its only then that you know you won.

      Not sure if that makes sense.

    2. Of course we respect him, but I don’t like him, it’s in the blood kinda like hating the jets, don’t really like Baltimore either

  13. Talked to three relatives in Toronto in different parts of the city. All without power from the ice storm. Lots of trees down, may not get it back for several days.

    2. I remember the big ice storm up in Quebec, Ontario and far Northern New England in early January 1998. I actually had a trip planned up there with a couple of friends but cancelled it a week before. I remember listening online to situation and it was pretty wild and nasty. (not too many stations broadcast on the net at that time but the CBC was one of them).

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Ice_Storm_of_1998

        1. Just remember all the pics of the Hydro lines south of Montreal snapped like twigs. Took the area quite a while to recover. I also remember stories about travelers stuck in their hotels (without power for the most part) for days as the streets of Montreal were too treacherous to walk or drive on.

  14. Nice Pat’s Win. Go Kansas City! We need them to BEAT Denver!
    I hope Manning is so cocky about his record that he falls on his face, Whining all the way!

      1. Had Boston been able to share in the warm air the record high of 62 would have easily been broken by at leat a couple of degrees…and even that high of 54 is deceiving as that was recorded at 3:19 am this morning and has been dropping ever since.

    1. Wont buy a hat unless its the super bowl champs. The division means nada to me and i would guess BB is telling the guys the same thing. Great statement win today though!

  19. TK – Not that I want any “bells & whistles” added to this blog, but I was wondering if WordPress would allow you to post an actual snowfall map for us? 🙂

    1. step 1.
      go to google maps make account
      step 2. make map. (traditional map)
      step 3 make shapes and stuff
      step 4 a key next to it forms.
      step5. print screen
      step 6 go to paint
      step 7 make box and paste to paint
      step 8 save as …….
      step 9 go to new post click photo.
      step 10 browse photos and look for saved picture.
      step11 you now have a map.
      This is what i been doing with my blog.

  21. Hadi, we’re getting a refrigerator effect from the Frozen Jamaica Pond and it
    is dropping our temperature here. Down to 37.2 😀 😀

    Well Jamaica Pond was Frozen prior to this warm up. 😀

  23. Every hat means something, I have every hat from the 1985 squish the fish hats to the 2007 16-0 hats to the 2004 Championship to the 2013 AFC east champs, I think I have well over 150 Patriot hats, I collect them all, since 1996 it’s been great to be a Patriots fan. What a win!! Cooled off a bit, 45.6 degrees 🙂

  24. When I went to the NFL HOF in Canton OH they had a lot of Patriots hats from the 01 season plus BB’s gameplans for all 3 superbowls, and the 01 defensive gameplan, pretty neat stuff, I love all of it, it all matters to me, looking for a bye with a win over buffalo, hadi, your like Ron borgis, he will turn a 41-7 Patriots beat down into how the ravens didn’t look good, and thats why the patriots won, it’s ok 🙂

    2. Never been to Canton to the NFL HOF but I’ve been to Cooperstown and it was impressive. Might have a chance this summer to go to Canton.

      3. I went to both NFL and baseball HOF’s and typically whatever sport is your favorite you will like more, I thought Canton was awesome and mind numbing for me as a die hard football fan, MLB was more of a history learning lesson, as supposed to already knowing the history in the NFL and then seeing it in canton. I’m gonna go back to canton soon 🙂

        1. I prefer football now to baseball but grew up baseball for obvious reasons. It just isn’t the sport it was IMHO. If you have a personal connection to one, it has nothing to do with being a fan

        2. Agree about the history part of baseball. They are beefing up the interactive stuff a little more from what I hear so a trip back is in order. Much closer than Canton. That being said the Basketball HOF is much closer and I’ve never been…hmmm maybe after Christmas.

    1. It’s in pockets. Basically you have to check the temp everywhere at the time because it’s borderline almost everywhere that is in the cold air. Be safe. 🙂

  32. Rain has begun here in Foxboro, temp in car says 40 degrees, continuing to be very foggy, got some last min shopping today to get done 🙂

    1. All done here. Today I am taking my mom out to get the last of the food for 2 feasts (Christmas Eve & Christmas Day). Otherwise, it’s the music of the season all day, a couple more holiday specials with my son (school vacation has already begun) and a Bruins game on TV tonight. 🙂

      1. A nice day for you, TK. We have a bit of food to get today also. We are meeting halfway to deliver gifts to my Uxbridge SIL to be at their house where we will open family gifts Wednesday. I love delivering bags of gifts ….. Like playing Santa. Music is on here now full time. Got that new sound system I had my eye on and we are all loving it. 🙂

  33. Morning All,

    The rain has Begun.

    Temperature was 34.9 at home and car read 34 all the way to the office.

    For all intents and purposes, the snow is gone. Sure there is patchy snow in
    protected areas, but anything in the open is bare ground. All baseball and football fields bare ground. All parks, bare ground.

    NO white Christmas for Boston. Bummer……….

    Looking at the crystal ball (read that models) I don’t see any hope either.

    Time to move on. 😀

    1. It was nice to have the milder air this weekend, just wish it wasn’t at the expense of melting all of the snow :).

      1. Yes, I would agree with that. Everything in life is timing and unfortunately, the timing was brutal.

        Moving on…….

  34. What’s with this freezing rain advisory? Is it really below freezing that far South?
    It’s NOT here, yet we are in the advisory????????

  36. EURO continues to trend colder at the 8-10 day period and long range GFS has had frigid shots for a few days now.

    Potentially headed below zero after or around the New Year ? We havent had one of those days in a while where the temp has stayed below 0 all day …..

    1. Any storms on the horizon with the Euro? The GFS has some things out on the longer end of the run but they seem to disappear and reappear from run to run

      1. They’ve been very far and few btwn.

        I think I recall Christmas Day (either 1980, 81 or 82) and several years ago, the Tuesday after MLK Jr. Weekend, perhaps 2005 ?

      2. Alot of this cold I believe can be be traced to the above October snowfall in Syberia, this usually translates a cold winter in the northeast. I have never been sold on the warm winter that most mets called.

  37. Negative nelly alert:

    This is my LEAST favorite kind of weather. Makes winter not feel worth it!

    End rant.

    Happy Holidays, blog buddies!

    1. Hadi,

      Believe me, I hope you are correct. It’s just that the EURO, FIM and GFS
      do NOT have this feature. Could it change with subsequent runs? Absolutely.

      The Canadian has had a bunch of what I call “Phantom” storms that NEVER
      materialized. Let us hope this one turns out to be real. Gotta love
      the positioning of that baby. 😀 😀

      1. Somewhat of support. The 06Z DGEX has a system at least, albeit way off shore:

        http://www.meteo.psu.edu/~fxg1/DGEXEAST_6z/f168.gif

        And all is not lost. The 12Z GFS does NOT have the above feature
        but does have a little something for that time:

        http://www.instantweathermaps.com/GFS-php/showmap-conusncep.php?run=2013122312&var=PCPPRSTMP_850mb&hour=171

        And also has this somewhat later:

        http://www.instantweathermaps.com/GFS-php/showmap-conusncep.php?run=2013122312&var=PCPPRSTMP_850mb&hour=276

        Which perhaps over time gets more interesting or goes poof, as per usual. We shall see.

        Additionally, on most models, there appears to be a decent
        parade of clippers. Perhaps one of them will turn into something
        similar to what happened last week. 😀 😀

  40. Not that it matters but I was reading an article yesterday from a met on boston. Com and he was saying looking dry and cold right through new year. I guess it warms up a little bit this weekend after a very cold Xmas and than next week looking very cold again.

  41. Looking at AO and PNA I believe January will be fridged. My biggest fear is that the PV is so far south that all storms are shunted away from us. But it would not take much IMHO to have an explosive storm come up here in early to mid January.

    1. If we could get the Gulf to Open up for business with that kind of cold, we could
      have the makings of a MONSTER. Just something to monitor.

      😀 😀 😀

  49. Henry Margusity ‏@HenryMargusity 1h

    EURO is now sensing the blocking pattern taking the clippers and intensifying them along the Northeast coast after the 1st

  50. 36.3

    It would have kept the snow if we didn’t have the extra Mild Friday and Saturday before
    it cooled off.

    No White Christmas!!!

    1. I don’t think anyone is gonna have a white Christmas if you live inside 495 and south of the pike unfortunately. Still off and on rain, looks to end around 7-8pm. Temp is 37.6 degrees

    1. I don’t doubt you have some snow left. I’m just saying it’s not a White
      Christmas. With your ailment, not sure how much you can get out.
      Take a look around. Look at Carolina Field, it’s bare. All the grounds
      around Jamaica Pond are bare. 😀

    1. Hadi,

      I am so Sorry. I’m such a jerk! I totally misunderstood.

      What you are saying is that you have enough snow in your front yard
      to have a little White Christmas for your family and I tried to ruin that.
      And for that I am so sorry. Please forgive me.

      Some times I just take things too literally without thinking.

      1. Oh don’t worry OS. I didn’t take it as you thought I would. 🙂 merry Xmas and let’s see what storms we can generate in 2014.

  56. Despite the rain today, I still have a snowcovered back yard, which is much larger than my front yard, which is mostly bare. So I’d say crusty white Christmas will be had here. It’s fine with me. I’ll take bare ground as long as it’s not a mild/rainy one. And it’ll be quite cold this year, but 25 degrees warmer than 1980. 😉

    1. Our outside plug tripped again so I was out trying to trace the cords under the snow to dig them up and reroute them. It dawned on me then that there is an up side to everything……even no snow.

  57. I was going to ask on FB but several here who have young kids are not on FB. If you have oatmeal and something sparkly or even village snow, they mix nicely to make reindeer food to sprinkle on the lawn tomorrow. And don’t forget NORAD Santa 🙂

  59. Temp is holding at 39.4 degrees, last batch of light rain is moving out, picked up .59, a lot of the ponds around here are back to water, just a week ago, there were kids playing on it, crazy!! Have a good night everyone 🙂

    1. my drive way is a sheet of ice. and there was an accident on my street involving one my neibors and an idiot that was going to fast.

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