COMMENTARY
My brother was a mixture of frustrated and amused when relaying the story to my mother yesterday, who then relayed it to me. What story? Oh, it’s about something that happens far too often. In this case it was a couple of Boston sports radio hosts having basically an on air melt-down. Did the Bruins lose a game they should have won? No. Did the Red Sox lose one game after a nine game winning streak? No. We all know that would be enough to cause a freak-out in sports radio hosts, but no, that was not it. Did they disagree with a move made by the Patriots? No. Do they think we need more coverage of the World Ping Pong championships? That would be cool, in my opinion, but no, it was not that. In fact, it had nothing at all to do with sports. Then what on earth were they going nuts about? It wasn’t anything really on earth, but what was falling TO earth, from the sky, or more specifically, from the clouds. Snow. In April. Wait, WHAT? SNOW? IN APRIL? How can that be?! It’s SPRINGTIME. It doesn’t snow in the spring here! I mean it’s supposed to be sunny and warm day after day after day with multitudes of flowers, chirping birds, and a gentle breeze that just makes you want to grab a picnic blanket and spread it out in the field. (Just remember to check for ticks after.) I didn’t hear it myself, but the sports radio host overreaction was common across our area yesterday. It was snowing, in mid April, in New England – SOUTHERN New England even! I mean that’s never happened in April before, has it? Not if you don’t count last year’s minor snowfall over interior southern New England on the SAME date last year, followed immediately by a snowfall ranging from about 1 to 6 inches on April 17 & 18, yup, LAST YEAR too. And as long as you don’t count the multitudes of times it’s snowed in Aprils previous, maybe because it’s actually kind of a normal thing here in the northeastern US. But how does that seem to be a forgotten thing by so many year after year after year? I’ve never understood it, nor will I. Even Boston’s Logan Airport, where “official” records for the city are gathered, sitting right out there in the water, averages 1.9 inch of snow in April, nearly 2 inches. Now this doesn’t mean nearly 2 inches of snow falls there every April. There are plenty of Aprils that this location does not see any measurable snowfall. However, they have seen measurable in 6 out of the last 9 Aprils. A little stat searching and logic will tell you that the average is influenced by a couple of stand-out April events during the 30 year period used to calculate the average, most obviously their dumping of 25.4 inches on April 1-2 1997 during the “April Fools Blizzard”, and a significant storm of 6.9 inches during a snowy April in 1996. But even without these, the fact that 2/3 of the time in the last 9 years they have had measurable snow in the month of April at the airport should tell you that April snow is NOT uncommon at all. Obviously it’s not as common as snowfall in January or February, or even March, but let’s be realistic here, those are winter months. Of course it’s going to snow more frequently. It just needs to be understood that because we change seasons to spring, it doesn’t mean that snow suddenly can’t exist anymore. And most of the time in the city (especially at the airport) they are minor events. In case you are wondering if Boston has seen any other major snowstorms besides the 2 mentioned above, they have. On April 6-7 1893, they saw 7.9 inches, on April 9-10 1917, 9.1 inches fell, and a remarkable “fluffy” snowstorm of 13.3 inches occurred on April 6-7 1982, with temperatures never getting above the 20s during and for about 24 hours after the event. So yes, the “big” April ones may be somewhat rare, but snow in April is not rare at all. So let’s take this somewhere else now. My journey through social media and my in-person day yesterday was punctuated with dozens of declarations of anger, disbelief, and borderline despair, about snow. In April. Wait what?! SNOW? Ok I won’t go through that again – you get the gist of it all by now. I’m not telling anybody that they have to enjoy snow. We all have our likes and dislikes, even about things we have absolutely no control over, like weather. I realize I am a bit of an odd duck because I don’t have any weather I dislike. But that aside, let’s take a look at some positives about this latest round of “winter in spring” a.k.a. April snow. I realize that as much as 6 to 11 inches fell in the highest elevations of central Massachusetts and nearby New Hampshire, and that definitely required some removal (shoveling, plowing, etc.), but we were lucky here since trees are not leafed out yet, so while some of the older trees & their limbs did suffer some damage, we avoided widespread damage and resultant power outages. For the vast majority of the region, including metro areas of Boston & Providence, it was a snowfall that would quickly remove itself after falling, as the combination of warmer ground and higher sun angle (even through the clouds) would help the melting process. What else good? Plenty… Temperatures stayed above freezing overnight even though rain & some additional mix/snow fell, so we did not have to deal with a freeze-up. Hey, that’s a plus! And you may or may not have heard me mention that much of the area is running a 4 to 6 inch precipitation deficit just since the start of 2021, and that abnormally dry to moderate drought conditions were covering pretty much all of New England. This storm system delivered generally 1 to 2 1/2 inches of beneficial total precipitation, maybe not enough to wipe out the deficit, but certainly taking a nice bite out of it. The portion that fell as snow ends up even more beneficial. As it melts into the unfrozen ground it fell on, it’s nicely absorbed, effectively acting as a longer lasting beneficial rainfall. Snow is also somewhat of a stimulant for new blooms on trees and in gardens, and will give the trees a boost for leaf out. As somebody who grew up with allergies, I know there’s a down side to this time of year: tree pollen. That’s inevitable, and just something we have to deal with. But wait, as a bonus for getting through this entire commentary, I remind you that yesterday’s rain and snow cleansed the air of pollen! So that will give allergy sufferers a break too, at least for a day and a half. But that’s better than no break at all, isn’t it? Enjoy the weekend! Stay safe!
DAYS 1-5 (APRIL 17-21)
Our April storm that brought rain & snow to the region yesterday is still swirling about offshore to the east of New England this morning, and will take its time moving away from the region during this weekend. And while today will still be wet at times with rain showers and drizzle spiraling back at us from the offshore low, we will see improvement for Sunday. Although as previously mentioned we still have a bit of a disturbance to come through, so don’t expect complete clearing and we will still carry the chance of a passing shower. So not the best weekend, but certainly not the worst. Looking for a warm-up? It’s coming for the beginning of the week when we get into a southwesterly air flow aloft. First, a warm front has to sneak through the region, and it will do so early Monday with some cloudiness, though I think any rain associated with the front should stay to the north. Once that gets by it’s going to be quite nice right through Tuesday. There are locations that received enough snow to shovel yesterday that may break 70 degrees on Tuesday. Once again, that’s spring in New England. And staying on that topic, you know not to get used to that warm up, right? Good! Because a strong cold front is going to approach and cross the region Wednesday, bringing our next chance of wet weather in the form of rain showers, maybe even a thunderstorm risk. And while the day is likely to be mild, depending on the front’s timing, it may be feeling quite a bit colder by that night…
TODAY: Cloudy morning with occasional drizzle and some rain showers, especially NH Seacoast and eastern MA. Mostly cloudy afternoon with a passing rain shower possible. Highs 45-52. Wind N to NW 10-20 MPH with higher gusts.
TONIGHT: Variably cloudy. Lows 37-44. Wind NW 10-20 MPH.
SUNDAY: Partly sunny. Slight chance of a passing rain shower. Highs 55-62. Wind W 5-15 MPH.
SUNDAY NIGHT: Variably cloudy. Lows 40-47. Wind W 5-15 MPH.
MONDAY: Lots of clouds morning. More sun afternoon. Highs 56-63. Wind SW 5-15 MPH.
MONDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy. Lows 42-49. Wind SW 5-15 MPH.
TUESDAY: Partly cloudy. Highs 57-64 South Coast region, 65-72 elsewhere. Wind SW 5-15 MPH with higher gusts.
TUESDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy. Lows 46-53. Wind SW 5-15 MPH.
WEDNESDAY: Variably cloudy. Rain showers arriving from west to east during the day. Highs 60-67. Wind SW 10-20 MPH.
DAYS 6-10 (APRIL 22-26)
Windy, colder for Earth Day April 22 and a disturbance may bring rain and/or snow showers. Cool, less windy, but dry April 23. Low pressure brings a rain chance at mid period followed by drying but cooler again late period.
DAYS 11-15 (APRIL 27 – MAY 1)
For now looking at a west to east (zonal) flow pattern with a tendency for a trough in the Northeast and keeping us on the cooler but mostly dry side. However some added pattern volatility may come from the interaction of a powerful Western Pacific typhoon as it re-curves and enters the northern hemisphere jet stream. For the record, this is not unusual – it just doesn’t happen all that frequently.