8:22AM<\/p>\n
DAYS 1-5 (JANUARY 6-10)
\nDepending on what you observe, today may be “Epiphany” a.k.a. “Theophany”, “Denha”, “Little Christmas”, or “Three Kings’ Day”. All of those are names for a Christian feast day that observes, for lack of better description, the day the 3 wise men reached Bethlehem. For football fans, today is “Wildcard Sunday”. It’s also the day of a new moon. For some, it may just be “Sunday”. In the meteorological world, it’s a “cold air advection day”. What does “advection” mean? You’ve heard me say it before, but if you are not sure, the definition is. as appears in Merriam-Webster, “the usually horizontal movement of a mass of fluid (such as air or an ocean current) also : transport (as of pollutants or plankton) by such movement”. Well, I’m not expecting any plankton today, but what we will be seeing is a colder air mass moving in from Canada, hence “cold air advection” – or in comes the cold air mass! But it doesn’t start out too cold, we will reach or exceed 40 before it falls later on. What you do need to be aware of into the mid morning hours is patchy black ice as moisture from yesterday’s rainfall that was not able to evaporate has frozen as temperatures fell to just below freezing across much of the area, making untreated surfaces somewhat slippery. As the cold air moves in today, it will be with increasing wind, and as temperatures go above freezing for a time before the full arrival of the cold, the combination of the temperature increase and wind will eradicate the patchy ice issue. The day itself, weather-wise will feature a sun\/cloud mix and there may be a brief passing rain or snow shower but no precipitation of any significant impact. Tonight and Monday we get a taste of mid winter air and it will be quite cold, but with diminishing wind, which will make it easier to take. Next comes that storm system, originally and prematurely hyped as a potential significant snow producer. I hesitated in going this far given model performance of late, and for got reason. We have a minor system passing by Tuesday and a quick follow-up Wednesday. The first brings snow showers with minor accumulation, especially north and west of Boston, ending as rain showers. The second, early Wednesday, brings additional rain\/snow showers, though there may be a period of steadier rain\/mix for a few hours depending on the evolution of the system, which will be rather compact. Behind that comes more wind and cold, and a few snow showers may linger later Wednesday into Thursday as the atmosphere bottles up a bit and a low pressure trough deepens just offshore. Any additional storminess responding to the evolution of this trough will occur well offshore, too far east for an impact here.
\nForecast details…
\nTODAY: Partly sunny. A passing rain or snow shower possible this afternoon. Highs 38-45 morning, falling back through 30s afternoon. Wind NW increasing to 15-25 MPH with higher gusts likely.
\nTONIGHT: Partly cloudy with a risk of a passing snow shower early, then clear. Lows 18-25. Wind NW 15-25 MPH with higher gusts early, diminishing overnight.
\nMONDAY: Sunshine followed by increasing cloudiness. Highs 28-35. Wind light variable.
\nMONDAY NIGHT: Thickening overcast. A quick period of pre-dawn snow may coat the ground and may produce up to 1 inch north and west of Boston. Lows 24-31. Wind light variable to S.
\nTUESDAY: Cloudy. Snow showers turning to rain showers south to north before ending west to east. Little or no additional snow accumulation.
\nPre-dawn snow except mix South Coast with minor accumulation. Isolated rain showers thereafter. Highs 37-44. Wind S up to 10 MPH becoming variable late.
\nWEDNESDAY: Cloudy with rain\/mix\/snow likely morning. Variably cloudy with snow showers possible afternoon. Temperatures generally stead 30s to lower 40s. Becoming windy late-day.
\nTHURSDAY: Partly sunny. Scattered snow showers. Lows in the 20s. Highs in the 30s.<\/p>\n
DAYS 6-10 (JANUARY 11-15)
\nDry and cold January 11. Unsettled weekend January 12-13 with snow\/mix\/rain possible but still looks like a relatively minor event as 2 systems stay separate. Drier weather returns January 14-15 but it may be windy as a large ocean storm may be located southeast of New England after the 2 systems that go by during the weekend join forces in the ocean.<\/p>\n
DAYS 11-15 (JANUARY 16-20)
\nLow confidence forecast as we’ll be looking for a transition from the Pacific flow pattern to one that should be a little more dominated by a broad trough and more northwesterly flow. But forecasting the evolution of this pattern and its timing is very difficult at this point. The period probably starts and ends dry with a passing system of rain\/mix\/snow somewhere in between.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
8:22AM DAYS 1-5 (JANUARY 6-10) Depending on what you observe, today may be “Epiphany” a.k.a. “Theophany”, “Denha”, “Little Christmas”, or “Three Kings’ Day”. All of those are names for a Christian feast day that observes, for lack of better description, the day the 3 wise men reached Bethlehem. For football fans, today is “Wildcard Sunday”. … Continue reading Sunday Forecast<\/span>