Friday Forecast

107 Comments

8:55AM

DAYS 1-5 (DECEMBER 21-25)
A stormy solstice as low pressure cuts west of the region on this first day of winter (solstice 5:23PM today), bringing mild air, rain, and wind. One main rain area comes through this morning with a warm front, which will introduce a temperature spike and increasing southerly winds. Some of the heaviest rainfall will occur in showery form in a band that transitions from west to east across the region late afternoon and early evening. This band will be the one most likely to produce areas of flooding and localized damaging wind gusts. Things should settle down later at night into Saturday morning through a few additional showers are possible, and one final band of showers may cross the region west to east late morning to early afternoon Saturday with a cold front, which will put an end to the brief warm-up, and bring seasonable cold back into the region by Saturday night and Sunday. This colder air will then remain with the region through Christmas Day on Tuesday. The only shot at pre-Christmas snow remains the passage of a weak disturbance which is currently timed for the morning hours of Christmas Eve on Monday, although a touch of instability could still support a few afternoon snow flurries as it moves away. There will be no repeat of the thundersnowstorm of Christmas morning 2017, but other than our windy/wet event today, decent travel weather will be the rule right through the holiday.
Forecast details…
TODAY: Cloudy. Rain and areas of fog morning. Numerous rain showers this afternoon including a band of heavier showers and possible thunderstorms later in the day. Highs 55-62. Wind S 10-20 MPH except 20-30 MPH South Coast, higher gusts likely all areas.
TONIGHT: Cloudy with numerous rain showers and possible thunderstorms early, diminishing to scattered rain showers from west to east. Lows
48-55. Wind S 15-30 MPH with higher gusts, shifting to SW and diminishing to 5-15 MPH with higher gusts overnight.
SATURDAY: Mostly cloudy. Chance of rain showers very early and one more passing line of rain showers possible west to east during midday. Temperatures steady 48-55 morning, falling through the 40s afternoon. Wind SW shifting to W 15-25 MPH with higher gusts possible.
SATURDAY NIGHT: Clearing. Lows 28-35. Wind WNW 15-25 MPH evening, diminishing overnight.
SUNDAY: Mostly sunny. Highs 35-42. Wind W 5-15 MPH.
MONDAY (CHRISTMAS EVE): Mostly cloudy with a slight chance of light snow except rain or snow South Coast during the morning. Partly sunny with isolated snow showers afternoon. Lows from the upper 20s to middle 30s. Highs from the middle 30s to lower 40s.
TUESDAY (CHRISTMAS DAY): Mostly sunny. Lows from the upper 10s to middle 20s. Highs in the 30s.

DAYS 6-10 (DECEMBER 26-30)
High pressure will bring fair and seasonably cold weather early in the period. A passing low pressure area brings a precipitation threat December 28 into early December 29 before fair and colder weather arrives later in the period.

DAYS 11-15 (DECEMBER 31-JANUARY 4)
Dry, seasonably chilly to end 2018. 2019 may begin with a stretch of unsettled weather bringing rain and/or snow to the region. Too far out for any good idea on details and timing.

107 thoughts on “Friday Forecast”

  2. Thank you, TK.

    Happy Friday, Sue and all.

    57 in Sutton and 56 DP with 0.64 rain. Have I said how much I detest the “undo” bar beside the space bar that appears every time I select the number keyboard. Arghhhhh

  4. I have two Christmas trivia questions. But neither is multiple choice and require an answer.

    1. In what town did It’s a Wonderful Life take place.

    2. What words are normally printed on gift tags?

    And a multiple choice

    3. In which direction did the star guide the Wise Men?

    a. East
    b. South
    c. North
    d. West

    Answers later today.

    1. 1. Bedford Falls
      2. To: / From:
      3. The obvious answer is a. East, but if you listen to some of the versions of the story, they say the Wise Men came from the east, although this could refer to the fact they were from the Middle East. There are versions of the song “The First Noel” which say “the star drew nigh to the northwest, o’re Bethlehem it took its rest” which would indicate that both c. and d. can be considered correct. 🙂

      1. Boy your good Tk . Glad Xmas forecast is working out . Lots of snow removal personnel lost some or all of Christmas with last seasons Xmas storm including myself who left for work at 3:00am Xmas morning & didn’t return home until 8:00 pm Xmas night it was horrible. Windy here with rain on & off

  7. I only have 0.33 inch in the bucket so far. 😀

    Gloomy Friday here in the city. Feels like a rainy Spring Day.

    re: Snow
    Blah, blah, blah, blah
    Sure as hell does NOT feel like Winter around these parts. And I don’t give a rat’s ass that there has been “some” cold. Doesn’t matter to me, it Ain’t Winter without SNOW
    on the ground. It just isn’t.

    Enough of my pre-Christmas rant.

    HO HO HO!!!!

      1. For me, it’s Christmas NO MATTER the weather. If I went by your rule, I’d have Christmas on average about once every 4 years. I’m not around long enough to waste any. 🙂

  9. I believe the Three Wise Men were of Asian origin and rode Bactrian (two humped) camels on their journey which are native to parts of Asia. I also believe that these particular species of camel are more suited to long distance travel than the traditional one hump camel. Later in modern times these camels were used for military purposes.

  13. Next Friday-early Saturday (28-29) a repeat?

    Will Friday become the new Tuesday for these prolific rains?

    During the fall it rained EVERY Tuesday. Eric pointed it out on air.

  18. As many know I have a fresh water marsh behind my house, first of all, it is much higher than usual. I will also add that I have not been seeing as many hawks or birds as usual, but I found out the possible reason. I saw a bald eagle it was on the willow tree going pass Jade Pacific in Billerica!!! Of course when I went to get my camera when I got back it was gone. 🙁

    1. Matt we have wetlands behind our house too. For the last several years it has been basically bone dry but not this fall. Skeeters might be back in force next spring and summer.

  20. It is 61 degrees in Sudbury, or so the temp. reading says so. It certainly doesn’t feel cold out – but it’s damp and windy out. Yes, it does feel like an early spring day. Even the sky doesn’t have that “winter look” to it. I am guessing that we will get our share of snow come Feb. or March. I think it has happened back in the day.

  24. With all the weather we have had this year with above normal tornadoes, March Noreaster’s all that humidity this summer why not end the year with a bang and have a Nor’easter!

    1. 62 here at Woods Hill as well. Short-lived warm push in progress. This will not be what we can call a “very warm December” when it’s all over.

  28. I would be curious if Boston’s odds for a white Christmas were somewhat higher prior to the 20th century or the same as today.

  29. That was not thunder you just heard. That was cannons and fireworks signaling the start of Winter Break!!! Woo-Hoo!!! 🙂

  30. Damage reports starting to come in quickly now:
    Hazmat emergency in Halifax, oil spill from electrical transformer
    Utility pole fire in Lakeville
    Tree on a truck (no injuries) not too far from me in Taunton.

    Police/fire scanner very active at the moment!

    2. Oh dear. I hope the folks in the truck are ok. Oil spills are never good. Mac used to have to collect and then test oil for PCBs when there were spills. Guarantee his company is on site.

    1. 2.1 is on the absolute borderline of not able to be felt. It sits between 2.0 and 2.3 depending on the makeup of the land.

  32. From Eric Fisher
    How about some more cheerful news? Still a chance of light snow Sunday night into Monday morning with a dusting to an inch possible. Festive potential for Christmas Eve

  34. My youngest felt the earthquake. She thought it was a plane flying low or helicopter but it was so short, she stood up and asked out loud if we’d just had an earthquake. I did not.

  35. I think these heavier echos coming up into Block Island and further south into the ocean are associated with the heart of the low level jet. Perhaps greatest gusts east of Worcester next few hours with heavy showers.

  36. In the pattern we’re in, you would expect to get a storm like this. We’re in the long anticipated “warm window”, so it makes sense we would get a day that is especially anomalous. And today certainly is anomalous, with a number of records being broken in the East. But it seems almost every year around this time we get a storm like this.

    I haven’t been paying that much attention to the longer ranges, but a fairly brief look yields a conclusion that the period near and after the new year looks rather conducive to both cold and snow. We’ll have to see what the prevailing storm track looks like after 1/1, as there is a risk that things end up being mostly suppressed, but whereas the current pattern is as hostile as they come for snow, at least the one we’ll likely see in early 2019 should provide some opportunities.

  38. Christmas Trivia answers

    In what town did It’s a Wonderful Life take place. Bedford Falls

    2. What words are normally printed on gift tags? To, From

    And a multiple choice

    3. In which direction did the star guide the Wise Men?

    a. East
    b. South
    c. North
    d. West

    d. The star was Westward leading. – I was going for the carol but didn’t make it clear.

    O Star of wonder, star of night
    Star with royal beauty bright
    Westward leading, still proceeding
    Guide us to thy Perfect Light

    1. “Westward leading, still proceeding” reminds me of when my son was young. He thought that it was “Westward leading, still bird-seeding!”

    3. Yeah I left out that part, “westward leading”, which is sad considering that’s one of my favorite songs of all time. 😛

  40. Way to many outcomes for after x-mas, models all over the place. The system looks elongated west to east not south to north like today, looks to ride along a ridge so how far north this goes determines what we get…..

    1. Today was a full latitude trough, highly amplified. Next week’s set-up is likely to be much different.

      1. Haha…. somehow my kids are hooked on that song. I guess it’s better than some of the songs you hear on the radio.

  42. Good morning….

    After reviewing the charts this morning, 3 things stick out:

    1. Christmas Eve Day may bring a bit of snow and some models “hint” at it being extended a bit by an inverted trough.
    2. Another big rain maker around the 29th
    3. “possible” Big Boy storm around 1/4-1/5. Could be a huge snow storm. Long way out.

    For those into Christmas movies, may a recommend one that was out several years ago:
    “The Christmas Candle”. It is available on Netflix among other outlets.

    1. I don’t think I’ve seen that movie JPD and that’s saying something. There are very few I haven’t seen. Thank you. I’ll look for it today.

  44. Vicki, what are you having for Christmas dinner? I usually have turkey but there have been so many food recalls, I’m not sure what to make. Most people I guess are just making turkey, etc. and being careful w/handling the turkey. And lots of people are eating out.

      1. I was considering that, actually. My mother’s family comes from England and beef is quite popular there. However, on Christmas they eat turkey usually., I believe. But still, ‘though turkey is one of my comfort foods, I was hoping for turkey. But roast beef and mashed potatoes and gravy is fine. My husband says, hey, just make lasagna! Might do that since I love Italian food.

    2. I did a spoon roast last year and people said it was excellent. This year I’m doing a stuffed pork roast.

          1. We’ve been doing Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter Dinner’s at our house for years. This year we are getting take out from Feng Shui in Cohasset…traditional no but we are looking forward to it and a break from cooking.

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