DAYS 1-5 (MARCH 7-11)
The low pressure area that went by our region early yesterday left behind a layer of cold air at the surface, and if you are used to the late winter / early spring weather in this area, you know that those cold layers are often very tough to dislodge once they are established. This will be the case today, even as a formidable low pressure area tracks from the Great Lakes into southeastern Canada. Its warm front is going to struggle to erode the cold layer. Higher dew points in place over our snow cover is producing fairly widespread fog underneath a layer of low clouds. The warm front that extends from the aforementioned low pressure area will take until this evening to finally make its way across the entire Woods Hill Weather forecast area, doing so first near the South Coast and eastern Connecticut, and lastly in the NH Seacoast region. While it’s a rain-free warm frontal passage, there will be some patches of light drizzle with the fog as a result of low level moisture in place prior to the approach and passage of the front. Clouds probably never break and sun is not seen anywhere today, but if this was to happen it would not occur until late-day and favor areas to the west and southwest of Boston. Clouds remain dominant tonight, but we’ll see a temperature rise across the region as we are finally into the warm sector of the low. Its cold front will sweep across the region during the morning on Sunday with clouds and rain showers. This is the same system that produced the severe thunderstorms and tornadoes from the Plains to the Great Lakes yesterday. Thankfully for our area, the conditions will not support severe weather, just rain showers. As the front goes by, the wind shifts to westerly and drier air arrives. I mentioned previously that the source region for the air behind the cold front isn’t really cold, so it’ll be a mild afternoon on Sunday. The active weather pattern then sends another low tracking eastward, set to pass to our north early in the coming week. Its warm front goes by the region by Monday evening, but the the daytime up to that point will be decent, with some high and mid level clouds sharing the sky with the sun, and relatively mild air – not much different than what we’ll have on Sunday, though the coast may end up cooler with more of an onshore wind developing ahead of the warm front. As the second low pressure area also travels across southeastern Canada, its cold front won’t sweep as cleanly across our region as the first low’s cold front does on Sunday. During Tuesday it will become more west-to-east oriented while held back by high pressure to our south, and this will promote warmer air to become more dominant. During this time, high pressure will also build in eastern Canada – a source of colder air waiting to pounce. This will happen as the cold front sags to the south and passes through our region. My forecast question was the timing on this front – whether it would hold back and allow a warmer day Tuesday, or come southward more quickly and cut off the warmth sooner. This is still something I am working out for the more detailed aspects of Tuesday’s forecast, and for now I am just generalizing with thinking that the front will cross the region “during the day”, but late enough in most areas for 60+ high temperatures. Earlier this week, I discussed doubt about Wednesday being a warm day as was shone by much of the medium range guidance, which often under-estimates the strength of high pressure in eastern Canada and often over-estimates the ability for warm air to surge into New England at this time of year, especially when you have remaining snow cover (and we still will have some, even though we lose much of it prior to then). At the same time, the still-active pattern sends another low pressure disturbance in our direction via the Great Lakes, and this likely means we combine that system from the west with moisture and colder air from the north and northeast, meaning that Wednesday ends up resembling yesterday and today here. Obviously, there will be some additional details to work out with this since it is still several days away…
*** FINAL REMINDER: This is the final day of Standard Time for this cycle, and the switch to Daylight Saving Time takes place tomorrow (Sunday) as 2:00 a.m. EST becomes 3:00 a.m. EDT. Remember to switch any clocks that do not do so automatically before you retire tonight!
TODAY: Cloudy. Areas of drizzle and fog through midday. Highs 38-45. Wind calm, then eventually S up to 10 MPH from southwest to northeast.
TONIGHT: Mostly cloudy. Rain showers arrive west to east overnight. Temperatures rise slightly to 46-53. Wind S to SW 5-15 MPH.
SUNDAY: Mostly cloudy with rain showers morning. Increasing sun west to east afternoon. Highs 53-60 except steady 46-53 Cape Cod. Wind SW 5-15 MPH, higher gusts possible, shifting to W.
SUNDAY NIGHT: Mostly clear. Lows 38-45. Wind W 5-15 MPH.
MONDAY: Partly sunny. Highs 45-52 South Coast, coolest Cape Cod, 52-59 elsewhere. Wind W under 10 MPH shifting to SE.
MONDAY NIGHT: Mostly cloudy. Lows 37-44 evening before a slow rise occurs overnight. Wind SE to S up to 10 MPH shifting to SW 5-15 MPH.
TUESDAY: Partly cloudy. Highs 50-57 South Coast – coolest Cape Cod, 58-65 elsewhere, but a quick temperature drop is possible in southeastern NH and northeastern MA during the afternoon. Wind SW to W 5-15 MPH may shift to N-NE in southern NH and northern MA during the afternoon.
TUESDAY NIGHT: Mostly cloudy. Lows 38-45. Wind NE 5-15 MPH.
WEDNESDAY: Cloudy. Chance of rain. Temperatures steady 38-45. Wind NE 5-15 MPH.
DAYS 6-10 (MARCH 12-16)
Volatile mid March pattern. Early period low pressure tracks close to or just north of the region with a potential brief temperatures spike and rain showers followed by a quick temperature drop late next week. Afterward additional unsettled weather meeting colder air can mean a potential variety of precipitation – timing and details TBD.
DAYS 11-15 (MARCH 17-21)
Overall pattern leans cold with near to above normal precipitation. Regardless of the weather pattern, the Vernal Equinox (start of spring) occurs at 10:46 a.m. EDT on Friday March 20.