4:45PM
The January weather in March will continue through early Friday as intensifying low pressure moves away from New England and we’re left with a chunk of Arctic air. Strong winds will continue into the night as the sky clears, and air temperature will fall below 10 in many areas with wind chill values below zero. The air mass will moderate during Friday as high pressure slides south of New England and a warm front approaches from the west, bringing increasing clouds after a sunny start. This warm front may bring some showers of rain or freezing rain to the region Friday night as surface temperatures will be close to freezing but the air aloft will be too warm to support snow. By Saturday morning, the warm front will have passed and the parent low passing north of New England will drag its cold front through, with a few rain showers around through the middle of the day. The remainder of the day will feature clearing and mild air, as the air behind that cold front is not really that cold. It will be a second cold front passing by later Saturday night that will introduce colder air but fair weather for Sunday.
St. Patrick’s Day 2014 will be cold and mainly cloudy. Will it snow? That remains to be seen, as there is some conflicting information on whether or not a developing storm to the south will make it far enough north to deliver a shield of snow to southeastern New England. At the moment, my leaning is that this will stay offshore or just graze the South Coast. This storm, hit or miss, should be moving away by Tuesday which is expected to be a dry and cold day. The middle of next week is a little tricky but a quick educated guess removes the snow/mix threat previously mentioned for Wednesday, and puts the chance of rain/snow showers to Thursday – only an educated guess based on which guidance I think may have the better timing. Long way to go to refine the day 6 and 7 forecast.
Updated forecast for southeastern New England (southern NH, eastern MA, and RI)…
TONIGHT: Decreasing clouds. Lows 5-10 except 10-15 urban centers and South Coast. Wind NW 10-20 MPH gusting around 30 MPH. Wind chill near to below zero at times.
FRIDAY: Increasing clouds. Highs from the lower 30s hills NW of Boston to 40 Cape Cod. Wind SW 5-15 MPH.
FRIDAY NIGHT: Mostly cloudy. Spotty light rain or freezing rain especially northern MA and southern NH late. Temperatures steady in the 30s, coolest far north and west of Boston. Wind SW 5-15 MPH.
SATURDAY: Mostly cloudy with a chance of rain showers morning. Partly cloudy afternoon. Highs 45-50. Wind W 10-20 MPH.
SATURDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy. Isolated snow showers possible. Lows in the 20s. Wind W 10-20 MPH shifting to NW.
SUNDAY: Mostly sunny. Highs in the 30s. Wind NW 5-15 MPH.
MONDAY – ST. PATRICK’S DAY: Mostly cloudy. Chance of snow/mix far south. Low 17. High 34.
TUESDAY: Mostly sunny. Low 18. High 38.
WEDNESDAY: Partly cloudy. Low 25. High 43.
THURSDAY: Mostly cloudy. Chance of rain showers. Low 33. High 51.