DAYS 1-5 (MARCH 1-5)
Meteorological Spring begins today, but if the weather could sing, it might be singing “Manic Monday” today, the iconic tune written by Prince but made famous in the 1980s by The Bangles. We’re going to see a few quick changes in the weather over the span of today, which will end vastly different than it starts. We start out with periods of rain and areas of fog this morning as a wave of low pressure moves by. This will end toward midday as the low moves quickly away to the east northeast, and then we’ll have a round of scattered rain showers quickly cross the region as cold front number one moves through. It will dry out quickly behind this front, and although drier air will rid us of any lingering fog and lower clouds, we may hold onto a higher level cloud cover, the back edge of which may take longer to move across the sky. This potentially sets up a nice sunset situation at least for eastern areas, so sunset photographers be on stand-by! Temperatures this afternoon will be fairly steady as an incoming cooler air mass is balanced somewhat by the higher sun angle. And then the second cold front of the day, an arctic boundary, charges across the region from northwest to southeast this evening, accompanied by snow showers and snow squalls for parts of the region, which could quickly cause untreated surfaces to become slippery due to rapid though minor accumulation. This front will be followed by a sharp temperature drop later at night, along with some pretty ferocious wind and resultant wind chill lasting right into and through most of the day Tuesday, which will feel cold even by January standards, let alone early March. The fact that it is early March will help out though because of the higher sun angle, which will take the edge off the cold just a little bit. Luckily, the cold blast will be very short-lived, just a one-day thing, as a warm front will cross the area from west to east Tuesday night and early Wednesday. This front may have a band of light snow with it but that should stay to the north with just some clouds moving across the southeastern New England sky. It will usher in much milder air for Wednesday, and while it will be breezy that day we won’t see anything like the wind of the previous day. But don’t get used to that milder air either, for yet another cold front will drop southeastward from Canada through New England by early Thursday, returning colder air to the region for that day and Friday as well. An upper level low pressure trough crossing the region will probably trigger quite a few diurnal clouds Thursday afternoon, and this energy will still be over the region Friday which could cause additional passing clouds and possibly a few snow flurries.
TODAY: Overcast with areas of fog and periods of rain into late morning. Mostly cloudy with additional rain showers west to east early afternoon. Slow clearing from the west mid to late afternoon. Highs 45-52 by midday, then steady temperature first part of afternoon and falling slowly later. Wind SE 5-15 MPH with gusts above 20 MPH over Cape Cod and the South Coast region early to mid morning and variable up to 10 MPH elsewhere through mid morning, SW 5-15 MPH by midday then shifting to W and increasing to 10-20 MPH from west to east early to mid afternoon with higher gusts possible by late in the day.
THIS EVENING: Clearing early, then passing clouds with potential snow showers and snow squalls which may cause quick coating to 1/2 inch accumulation. Temperatures fall 30s through 20s. Wind W shifting to NW 15-25 MPH with gusts 35-45 MPH. Wind chill falling below 10.
OVERNIGHT: Clearing. Lows 6-13. Wind NW 15-30 MPH, gusts 35-50 MPH. Wind chill falling well below zero.
TUESDAY: Sun and passing clouds. Highs 25-32. Wind NW 15-25 MPH, higher gusts. Wind chill often below 15.
TUESDAY NIGHT: Clear evening. Increasing clouds overnight. Lows 13-20 evening, rising into the 20s overnight. Wind NW 5-15 MPH evening, shifting to W overnight.
WEDNESDAY: Partly sunny. Highs 41-48. Wind W 5-15 MPH.
WEDNESDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy. Lows 25-32. Wind NW 5-15 MPH.
THURSDAY: Partly to mostly cloudy. Highs 35-42. Wind NW 10-20 MPH.
THURSDAY NIGHT: Mostly to partly cloudy. Lows 18-25 Wind NW 5-15 MPH.
FRIDAY: Partly sunny. Chance of snow flurries. Highs 28-35. Wind NW 10-20 MPH.
DAYS 6-10 (MARCH 6-10)
Temperatures near to below normal. Watching for a potential winter weather event during the March 6-8 time frame but the trend has been to keep development further south. I don’t completely trust this solution just yet. We’ll be watching the evolution of the pattern into a more blocking set-up (more later).
DAYS 11-15 (MARCH 11-15)
Blocking pattern. A couple of opportunities for unsettled weather which may include frozen precipitation. Temperatures near to below normal.