DAYS 1-5 (APRIL 15-19)

The next 5 days will feature a lot of changing weather, and at this time of year hearing that can be agonizing, given that we have opening day at Fenway Park for the Red Sox today, a weekend, then Patriots Day aka Marathon Monday around these parts. In other words, there are a lot of events and plans outside over the first 4 of the next 5 days, and we all know how hard it is to pull that many “outdoor days” in at this time of year with the weather cooperating. Will it cooperate all the way through? Not exactly. But you will see by reading on that we will do just about as good as we can possibly expect, despite having to go through some changes. It looks like our next real storm threat holds off until we get across the finish line of the 4 days – yup, that was on purpose. 😉 Today, we have clouds departing behind our frontal system that brought us some wet weather last night, and today turns out to be quite a nice day with an area of high pressure sliding across the Mid Atlantic States with an extension up into New England. Many times April baseball at Fenway can be met with a chilly easterly wind, but this won’t be the case today as we will have a wind shifting from north to west during the course of the day, and fairly mild air in place, with plenty of sunshine for the game (first pitch 2 p.m.). The weekend will hold the greatest change, but the timing of the rain threat will be fairly good for daytime outdoor plans. As high pressure slides off the Mid Atlantic Coast we’ll have a mild southwesterly air flow on Saturday with some early cloudiness as a weak warm front goes through, and a gusty breeze during the day as a cold front approaches, trailing from low pressure heading for the St. Lawrence Valley. The front will be moving slowly enough so that we should get through most of the daylight hours without much of a wet weather threat, with just a few isolated to scattered rain showers (possibly a thunderstorm) skirting the northwestern reaches of the WHW forecast area in north central MA and southwestern NH. It will be Saturday evening when this frontal boundary will make its way eastward and across the region with more widespread shower activity. The thunderstorm threat will be limited by the loss of daytime heating. This system will keep on moving so that we are clearing out in time for Easter Sunday, although the sun may not initially be visible for sunrise services as there still could be some cloudiness lingering in the eastern sky to start the day. The balance of the day will feature sunshine and passing clouds, a few of which could release a brief rain shower, but not worth cancelling any outdoor plans over. The “issue” for Sunday is that it will be noticeably cooler than Saturday, along with a gusty breeze – enough to blow plastic eggs around – so keep that in mind. Winds will settle down Sunday night as high pressure moves over the region, but this will set up quite the chilly night and as runners gather at the starting line in Hopkinton MA for the Boston Marathon, the temperature will be hovering only a small handful of degrees above freezing (brr!). But with plenty of April sunshine it will warm quickly along the route (and elsewhere) into and through the 40s and into the 50s. Also, another game at Fenway Park starts in the late morning and while it will be a nice day, it won’t be nearly as mild as Friday. Also both Fenway and at least eastern parts of the marathon route could see a sea breeze develop by midday, so the later innings of the baseball game and later runners of the marathon will likely have to contend with that. During Monday afternoon we’ll also see an increase in high cloudiness ahead of a storm system, set to impact the region with rain and some wind Monday night into Tuesday. In fact enough cold air may be around so that the higher elevations of central MA and southern NH could see some snow for part of this event – something to watch as we get closer to it. The early call is that this system will be progressive enough so that we’ll already start to see a drying process and maybe some partial clearing before Tuesday is over – but that’s quite a ways off and there is plenty of time to fine-tune that part of the forecast…

TODAY: Early clouds especially eastern MA & RI otherwise mostly sunny. Highs 62-69. Wind N up to 10 MPH shifting to W 5-15 MPH, gusts to 20 MPH.

TONIGHT: Partly cloudy. Lows 42-49. Wind SW 5-15 MPH.

SATURDAY: Early clouds, then partly sunny mid morning to mid afternoon. Mostly cloudy later in the day with a chance of showers and possibly a thunderstorm, favoring north central MA and southwestern NH. Highs 61-68 except cooler South Coast / Cape Cod. Wind SW 10-20 MPH, a few higher gusts.

SATURDAY NIGHT: Cloudy with showers likely evening including a slight chance of a thunderstorm eastern CT, central MA, and southern NH. Breaking clouds overnight. Lows 42-47. Wind SW 5-15 MPH, higher gusts, shifting to NW.

SUNDAY: Early morning clouds especially eastern areas, then sun and passing clouds. Slight chance of a brief passing rain shower. Highs 52-59. Wind NW 10-20 MPH, higher gusts possible.

SUNDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy evening. Clearing overnight. Lows 34-41. Wind NW 5-15 MPH evening, variable under 10 MPH overnight.

MONDAY: Sunny morning. Increasing high clouds afternoon. Highs 55-62, coolest coast. Wind variable up to 10 MPH with coastal sea breezes.

MONDAY NIGHT: Thickening overcast with developing rain and the potential for mix/snow in interior higher elevations. Lows 33-40. Wind NE 5-15 MPH, higher gusts.

TUESDAY: Overcast with rain likely morning. Breaking clouds afternoon. Highs 48-55. Wind NE to NW 10-20 MPH, higher gusts.

DAYS 6-10 (APRIL 20-24)

Westerly (zonal) flow pattern. Unsettled weather threats favoring April 21 & 24. Variable temperatures.

DAYS 11-15 (APRIL 25-30)

Early hints of some blocking trying to set up with temperatures near to below normal and additional unsettled weather.