Showers For The Flowers

169 Comments

2:05AM

The unsettled weather pattern will continue for a few days as a frontal system drifts eastward across the region and waves of low pressure ride up along it. One such wave will pass west of southern New England today while a second one passes to the east on  Thursday. By Friday, this front will be pulling away but upper level low pressure will keep it somewhat unsettled. If we get lucky, much of the weekend will be good, but an additional disturbance may bring some clouds at some point (timing uncertain). A new period of unsettled weather is expected by the beginning of next week.

Forecast for eastern MA, RI, and southern NH…

TODAY: Mostly cloudy. Periods of showers, a few possibly heavy. High from near 60 south facing coastal areas to near 70 inland areas.  Wind S-SW 5-15 MPH.

TONIGHT:  Cloudy. Showers likely. Chance of thunderstorms. Low 55-60. Wind SW shifting to N 10-15 MPH.

THURSDAY: Cloudy. Showers likely in the morning with some heavy downpours and a slight chance of thunder. Showers less numerous in the afternoon. High 60-65. Wind N 10-15 MPH.

FRIDAY: Variably cloudy. Isolated showers. Low 48. High 64.

SATURDAY: Partly sunny. Low 46. High 64.

SUNDAY: Partly cloudy. Low 51. High 70.

MONDAY: Mostly cloudy. Chance of showers. Low 50. High 66.

TUESDAY:  Mostly cloudy. Chance of showers. Low 52. High 68.

169 thoughts on “Showers For The Flowers”

  1. Let’s get it out of the way. Maybe then, by memorial day, we will be in the clear! 😉

  2. I just read a statement by NOAA that 15,000 high temperature records have been set across the nation so far this year.

  3. Question for the mets. Can extraordinary solar flares, which there will be today, effect the Earth’s weather?

    1. I don’t know about the weather, but I heard on the tv news this morning that communication devices could be affected.

  4. Mt. Washington is 41F….so, if the sun breaks through anywhere, the temps are off to the races.

  5. Heavy downpours in North Attleboro this morning. So far .45 inches of rain since last night.

  6. 00z GFS back with the tropical system idea…
    http://mag.ncep.noaa.gov/NCOMAGWEB/appcontroller?page=Image&prevPage=Param&image=..%2FGemPakTier%2FMagGemPakImages%2Fgfs%2F20120509%2F00%2Fgfs_namer_372_10m_wnd_precip.gif&fcast=372&imagesurls=&model=GFS&area=NAMER&storm=&areaDesc=North+America+-+US+Canada+and+northern+Mexico&cat=MODEL+GUIDANCE&rname=SFC-LAYER+PARMS&pname=10m_wnd_precip&cycle=05%2F09%2F2012+00UTC&imageSize=M&currKey=model&scrollx=0&scrolly=131&nextImage=yes

    1. That would be a not so nice Memorial Day weekend….If you look at the GFS further south from that run, that system comes all the way up from off the coast of Central America! It is pretty far out and things can change with the westerlies this far north, but it is pretty impressive. Has it showed it off and on for a few days?

      1. Nope, this is just one of the GFS’s many quirks, and it wasn’t anywhere to be found on the 06z run, so no worries.

  7. Waiting in Hingham court, here to testify about my break in. This place is like a dungeon. Concrete walls painted mute colors, dirty floors. At least I am meeting some interesting people. 🙂

    1. Outdated! I don’t understand, my wife always asks are they gonna wait till it falls down, it’s embarrassing for it to represent us as New Englanders

      1. Charlie, I agree with you somewhat. Nothing I hate more than run down old ugly buildings. I don’t mind having old buildings, as long as they are maintained properly, both asthetically and not causing safety/environmental issues. To me, an old building that is clean and has been updated with a fresh coat of paint or new bricks is far more appealing than some of the modern crap today that is cheaply built with inferior materials.

        2. I agree too. I’m waiting at hosp to take husband home from colonoscopy. Ace master how was your game

          1. Game is coming along Vicki, got back into the 30’s with a 39 so can’t complain, thanks for asking 🙂 Didn’t get too wet either, stayed dry till the 3rd hole, but the showers were light

            2. I forget where you play – husband just asked and then groaned when I said you shot a 39 —– he said excellent but he won’t tell you what he shoots 🙂

              1. haha, its still early in the season, plenty of time to improve. We play at Brookmeadow in Canton which doesn’t usually drain well so any little bit of rain and the course is soaked.

          2. Vicki – my husband is finally going to have his colonoscopy at the end of the month. Did your husband have it at the Fram. hospital?

            1. He was at Newton Wellesley and still seems to be zonked even though procedure was at 10:30. My turn is end of month too – on 30th

              1. My husband is having his colonoscopy on May 31st in Fram. Hope your husband feels better soon – it can take time sometimes to fully wake up. I know my husband takes a long time to come out of it.

  8. Lots of rain here, .31 of rain since 3am 🙂 I expect close to 2 inches of rain south of Boston by midnight tonight

  10. I think instead of tk’s headline saying showers for flowers it should say Rain for the flowers 🙂 I got almost a half inch of rain with moderate to heavy rain, also for the 1st time the river is about 10 inches from the top, highest since last yr, received almost a half inch .45 so far 🙂

    1. I hear u on the heavy rain, it poured my entire drive to work from Easton to Walpole. Not sure what its doing out there now though.

      1. It’s downpours, at this rate we will be over an inch by the afternoon, I think after this batch of heavy rain a small lull during mid afternoon will lead to additional heavy rain this evening into tonight 🙂 .58

    1. Here too in Marshfield. I’d say moderate rain for three hours straight with occasional tropical downpours mixed in for good measure.

    2. Looks like there may be a lull coming from Providence north coming. I am up to .78 in North Attleboro and .6 of that coming since about 7am.

  12. “By Friday, this front will be pulling away but upper level low pressure will keep it somewhat unsettled.” This weather makes ME feel “unsettled” 😛

  14. I think I underestimated how much we r gonna get, I’m at .71 still raining and I see an additional 1-2+ of rain through Thu morning, the drought may not be gone in Boston or north but it will vanish here south of Boston by tommorrow at this time 🙂

    1. I agree Charlie. It has slowed down here. I have only had an additional .02 in the last hour.

    2. Doubt it, south of Boston has been the worst hit with this drought. What ever deficit Boston is for the year in rain fall you can add 3″ to that for the south shore.

      1. After tonight 2 inches of rain, that will be almost 7 inches, with all do respect I think the drought here can be put on back burner esp with more showers coming through the week , take it easy coastal:)

        2. Charlie – we were still 6 inches below normal for the year yesterday and we’ve only had 1/4 inch here today. Rivers in this area are still low.

          1. Totally different weather here, we’re coming in on 1 inch of rain and additional I expect another 2 inches to total 3 inches of rain, I got 3 inches of rain 3 weeks ago plus another inch of precip from showers scattered between those dates, that would be 7 inches of rain in last 23 days. I would even go out and say for here the last 3 weeks have been a drought buster. 🙂

            1. I have had the same here too Charlie in North Attleboro. We had that 2-3 inches overnight recently and we have also had almost an inch today.

  16. really – all that rain? If it rained here I missed it. I think we had a few very brief bursts but not a downpour and nothing prolonged

    1. Kind of neat how 2 days of rain have both had nearly the same exact cutoff point, with one batch to the north and one to the south.

      1. Me too. Matt Noyes showed New Bedford at 1.9 for today so far, so further south of Charlie and I they had even more.

  17. Same here in Sudbury. I don’t have a rain gauge but sometimes use a cup and ruler to measure. Haven’t measured anything yet – but like Vicki in Framingham, here in Sudbury so far we haven’t had much rain.

  19. A nice shower up in southeast NH and some intensifying showers on the northern edge of rain in southeast Mass……….I am encouraged temp wise with the long range. Above normal temp prnojections from the CPC and environmental Canada with the northern jet stream retreating into central Canada. It’s now above freezing around most of Hudson Bay, the ocean temps are surpassing 50F and we’re closer to the solstice than the vernal equinox, so….I think most days of chilly weather are done.

    1. …..I don’t consider today chilly, it feels borderline summer, mild and humid. Feels good 🙂

        1. Yes…..boy, when it rained this morning, the rain drops were huge…lots of available moisture in the air.

        2. coastal do you know how to convert RH to dew point? My weather station gives RH and I much prefer dew point. We are 64.3 deg and 84% – I’m wearing a sweatshirt but had AC on in the car just to get the muggies out.

          1. I know I addressed that to coastal – b/c he mentioned DP – but if anyone has an answer I’d appreciate it. Thanks again

            1. Great question…….I didn’t know, so it made me look it up.

              There’s evidently a complicated algorithm and a simpler equation. The first looked like calculus III, so let’s go the easier route. The formula is T – ((100 – rh) / 5)? So…..64.3 – ((100 – 84) / 5). Parenthesis first…16 division next….16/5 = 3.2…..64.3 -3.2 = 61.1F dewpoint. Cool, learned something new. Credit to Wikipedia for the formula.

              1. Tom if I remember you are a math teacher?? Math was always my favorite subject but having looked at this I’ll just learn to like RH 🙂

                Thank you very much for looking it up and posting

                1. Yes, middle school math teacher. I love looking stuff up, I just always hope I’m interpreting it correctly (yikes !) In going back to the Wikipedia site, the formula above is only a good approx. when the rh is 50% or higher. I’m glad it said that because the formula would say that a temp of 80F and an rh of 10% would have a dew point of 62F, which makes no sense…..I wonder what the formula is when rh is below 50% ?

                2. Ah..there is one…and for a temp of 80F and an RH of 10%, it would give a dewpoint of 48F. That makes a little more sense. Ok, no more formula talk. 🙂

  20. It’s in the news, there’s a rather large sunspot that, as the sun rotates, is currently facing the earth. If you’d like to see pictures, type in to the search engine, Stanford Solar Center. I think you’d then click…about the sun….images of today’s sun…..current solar images….and then there are about 10 pictures to choose from.

  21. How much rain have u gotten? I’ve gotten .93 so far and have seen some 2 inch amounts south of Taunton, moderate to sometimes heavy rain continues 🙂

    2. I just looked out the window. The mulch under my peonies isn’t even wet. It’s raining very lightly right now

      1. Can’t wait to see the totals tommorrow across the state from a town like Milford receiving a half inch while just 20 min down 495 to Taunton coming close to 3 maybe 4 inches

        1. I am at .92 so far and I too am concerned for flooding. My sump pump is usually dry and I had some water in the bottom a couple of weeks ago when we had the 3 inches on that Sunday night. I think it was 4/23.

  22. Very little rain here in JP. Sun nearly broke out a couple hours ago and nothing since.

  23. Had almost no rain around here. The first batch of rain this morning missed us. I am recording .4 of an inch of rain. in the last day and last night. Most of it fell last night

  24. First time checking in today and I don’t have if anyone mentioned it but 35 years ago today parts of SNE had accumulating snow and I believe Boston received 0.5 with that storm. I wonder if that was a once in a lifetime May snow event.

  26. Brad, it looks like the 12Z GFS is picking up on the tropical system again for Memorial Day weekend off the coast. Still two weeks out but it seems to keep showing it on the 00 and 12Z runs.

  29. I was not alive for that snow event 35 years ago that I mentioned earlier but I am sure some trees and powers line came down with that storm.

  30. It’s amazing Vicki the spread across Massachusetts, it goes from under a quarter inch in alotta places north of Woonsocket to Franklin to Quincy to 2 inches in New Bedford, I think the places that got most of the rain will get most of the 2nd batch also though I do think north of the pike gets into the action later to night. I’m at 1.02

      1. The sky just opened up here. It lasted 2 minutes but was intense. Still some rain. Charlie. Did you send it here.

  31. The rain down the coast looks quite heavy so I suspect that some of us will be awaken by raindrops later tonight into the wee hours of the morning. Any chance we get awaken by thunderstorms as well, Jimmy? 😮

  32. I am concerned for some of flooding, there’s quite a bit of rain coming esp around midnight and beyond

  33. As of 9:00 pm obs. time, dewpoints are still in the upper 50’s, just below the humid & sticky levels. While it is not cold like last week, it is somewhat humid but with a “coolish” feel to the air. I almost wore a very light jacket, but instead chose a slightly thicker jacket and glad I did.

    Yet another gloomy day today…a typical November (oops, I mean May) lol. 😳

    1. Maybe we are getting the humidity here. dP is 60 (i think) and temp is 60. I dug out shorts and a t shirt and we have the ceiling fans all going

  34. light rain started around here in billerica around 9pm.
    currently there is light rain, temperature is at 60 degrees with 73% humidity up at the house 58 degrees , 94% humidity down in the marsh . There is almost no wind so no extra moisture is coming from the marsh.

  35. “Showers For The Flowers” was a good title because much of the precip was cellular and convective.

    GFS’s tropical pickups are usually bogus, especially this early.

    1. Maybe in Woburn but respectably not south of Boston, got over an inch of rain here 🙂

    1. wow…… is this amount including yesterday’s rain or is it a new amount that represents what fell overnight. I ask because for over 2 hours straight, the Marshfield ob showed heavy rain and there were plenty of other moderate rain obs during the overnight as well.

  37. Was detoured on my way to work this morning due to flooding.

    Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head…

    1. One of my very favorite movies, AceMaster. I think the song will stick in my head today 🙂

  38. How accurate is Wunderground? I love the online interface. I found a station that is about .25 mile from my house and it says we got .68 in. It has Humarock at 1.38 and Foxboro at 1.3, Franklin 1.02 and Uxbridge at .66. Does anyone know if this is for the duration of the storm or just since midnight (for the current day)?

    1. Judging by North’s post and Charlies, I’m thinking Wunderground’s amounts are since midnight??

          1. I was at 1.88 this morning but I think my instrument might be off. Last storm we had my instrument measured 1/2″ to 1″ less than areas surrounding me. Might have some debris in the funnel.

  40. The river is over its banks, for the entire storm to this point we’ve gotten 2.34, still light to moderate rain

  41. We have some minor flooding down here, I can’t believe the main river that runs through here is 15-18 inches higher than yesterday and is about 6 inches above banks, haven’t seen that in proly a yr, it’s not serious flooding but enough to where if we got another inch or 2 of rain we would have serious flooding here 6.45 inches in 24 days

    2. Sun will be tring all day. showers will end by 1pm across most of southern new england. Might see some peaks of sun by late afternoon or early evening.
      Around Billerica we got nothing more than . 7 of an inch.

  44. Going to say that the river has risen above normal but only by about 2 to 4 inches…. but i do see the water in the river moving .

  45. TK’s title for this blog is his most clever I have seen so far here. I hope to see more such rhymes in the future. 🙂

    1. I agree but only if it was showers, I wouldn’t consider 2.41 inches of rain in 24 hrs called showers, in the northern part of forecast area, yes, but not the southern half of forecasted area, tk knows his stuff I guess I’m just a jerk 🙂 have a good day 🙂

  48. BZ published these totals

    Town Inches
    Fairhaven 3.65
    Vineyard Haven 3.32
    North Falmouth 3.28
    New Bedford 3.25
    West Tisbury 3.15
    Centerville 2.85
    Acushnet 2.74
    Cedarville 2.60
    South Dennis 2.58
    Falmouth 2.56
    Hyannis 2.43
    Berkley 2.37
    Duxbury 2.32
    Plymouth 2.30
    Bourne 2.29
    Middleboro 2.13

    1. Thanks Hadi – I couldn’t trace back how you got to it. If I’m correct you went to the taunton info – I did that earlier but couldn’t figure how to get to the totals.

  52. Nice to see cumulus clouds, which are some of my favorite type of clouds. Some of them on the northern horizon look threatening.

    1. I believe some locations have picked up to 7 an 8 inches in last 3 weeks, again quite impressive

  54. For what it’s worth, the GFS still shows that tropical system at the end of the run. Surprised by the consistency…

    1. I know ! I expected it to disappear, but it has not….though unlike the last day or two, today’s version seems to keep it at a much lower latitude and not track it parallel up the east coast.

  55. Wow, four tornado warnings…three of which appear to be three counties right next to each other for those vicious looking thunderstorms in southern Texas.

  56. I am thinking of going kayaking but my neibor said that the mix of the wind and stronger current made it difficult to travel. water level 12 feet at the river.

    1. Does the current of a river depends on the depth of the river at that time and if we had recent rainfall. Can someone explain this to me because sometimes the river moves quickly while other times there is almost no current and it seems to happen even when we had no rainfall and its windy out.

      1. Matt, I’m not a hydrologist or a river expert, but I’d think the more narrow a body of water is (and maybe less deep), the stronger the current would be…..as the amount of water needed to flow through increases.

  57. So, are we seeing a preview of the summer pattern…….

    Western Atlantic ridge…….trof in the midwest or eastern great lakes…with copious amounts of moisture along the east coast ?

    Maybe not the most 90F for the summer, but the A/C running a ton because of constant dew points in the 60s and low 70s ?

    1. I’m only hypothesizing this because of the next set of muggy rains due early next week…seems to be a repetitive start of something.

      1. Yes..maybe a lot of summer days with a S/SW breeze…the temps are 83 or 85F, as opposed to 93F, but the dewpoints are like 70F…and there are a lot of afternoon showers/storms scattered about. Just a theory 🙂

        2. I still think we break out of this pattern end of next week or early the following week. Maybe wishful thinking, but I have a feeling maybe June might be so wet as we have seen in the last couple years. From what I’ve seen in the past, once these patterns break, you don’t see them again for another 4 to 5 weeks. If that repeats, that means June should be drier and warmer. After that, July doesn’t usually have that sort of pattern. What kills June is this pattern in April, then a decent may, then a pattern repeat in June. Maybe this year it gets this out of the way before June gets here. Only speculation.

  58. It is lovely on the deck. Wind ranging from 8-15 mph with blue sky and incredible cloud display

    1. Clouded up a bit right as my company softball game started around 6. Wind freshened up a bit too, made it a very chilly mid to upper 50’s. Actually felt warmer when it was mid to upper 50’s and raining, go figure!

      1. Darn I used to love the company softball games. And bowling. I was in charge of organizing them.

        He played Better the said but was 45 and usually hovers around 40 He was just happy the sun was out and it wasn’t cancelled. Thank you for asking 🙂

        1. Oh good! I’m glad the sun came out for him. It’s still early in the season, much more time to improve. I’m in the bowling league at work too, that just finished up about a month ago. So much fun and good networking opportunities esp for early in my career right now.

          1. I miss all of that. I worked for the same company husband does and was laid off after 32 years. I always liked organizing stuff. It also helped with my career. Now I have my own buisiness and love what I do.

            1. That’s awesome that u landed on ur feet after being layed off and have ur own business. I bet they regret that decision now! 🙂

              1. Thanks. It was all for the best. All sr management went. Company was looking to trim to sell. Co that bought asked me to come back but I really do love what I’m doing

  61. I have family just outside of Dallas, and its funny, every time I hear about tornado warnings and bad storms I get so worried. I’ll call my cousin to see if everyone is ok and he’ll be like, what do u mean? what happened? I’ll ask, is everyone ok after the storms…he goes, oh yeah, that, its no big deal, happens all the time. I dont know how they can be so nonchalant about storms. I’d be a wreck every time a tornado watch or warning was posted.

    1. My inlaws in CA do the same if there’s earthquake reports. I’m not sure complacency is a good thing

  62. To me when that tornado warning is issued for your area you need to act as if it is the real thing and take the necessary steps to protect you and your family because a warning means its immenet or occurring as opposed to a watch which means conditions are favorable for the development of severe storms.

    1. I agree JJ. I’m in my basement if theres a warning, no questions asked. I feel like in areas where storms are more common, people take the warnings lightly. I guess more storms means more false alarms? Makes it more dangerous though if u ask me.

  63. I agree with you that where the storms are most common people do take it lightly but the one time you don’t take the necessary action might be the time where it is not a false alarm and could have serious consequences. After what happened here last June 1st I don’t think too many people will take a tornado warning lightly and to me what that day proves is tornadoes can happen here in New England and although rare we could get strong tornadoes if the right setup happens.

    2. I agree jj, when I lived in Dallas for 5yrs I heard tornado sirens 4 maybe 5 times and 2 of those times were in Arlington at UTA, the sirens are scary sounding, anyways my point is Tornado warnings there in spring are as common as us getting snow in Jan 🙂

      1. I was going to say that even though we are used to snow, we still prepare for it. But that’s not true either. Look at all of the people who got caught unprepared for the October snow and loss of electricity even though they had at least 4 days notice and plenty of warning. And then they blamed the electric companies. Makes me shake my head.

        And even last June there were warnings the morning of the tornadoes and I can’t even count the number of people who didn’t take them seriously.

        Guess it’s the same everywhere.

        Stepping down from my soapbox now — I need more coffee 🙂

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