Thursday April 4 2024 Forecast (7:43AM)

134 Comments

DAYS 1-5 (APRIL 4-8)

Low pressure moves across the region early today (track across southeastern MA) then slowly makes its way into the Gulf of Maine where it hangs around until the weekend, then gradually shifts away to the east. Impacts from this system have been as expected in general, and will continue as described previously, with a variety of precipitation, most frozen stuff to the north and west, to mainly rain South Coast with some mix/variety in between. This just becomes lingering rain/snow showers by Friday and a few rain showers by Saturday until we’re just down to lingering clouds Sunday. The worst of the wind has already occurred, but we’ll still have strong east to north winds in much of the region as the low pulls through (with more variable winds around the track of low pressure). We’ll be in a generally moderate northerly air flow Friday into the weekend. Finally, high pressure builds in with fair weather and favorable conditions for solar eclipse viewing on Monday! More detail soon on that.

TODAY: Cloudy. Steady precipitation tapers to rain/snow showers. Highs 36-43, may spike to 43-50 Cape Cod. Wind NE-N 10-20 MPH inland, 20-30 MPH coast but may become variable Cape Cod, higher gusts probable.

TONIGHT / FRIDAY: Mainly cloudy with additional rain/snow showers. Lows 33-40. Highs 38-45. Wind N 10-20 MPH, higher gusts.

FRIDAY NIGHT / SATURDAY: Lots of clouds. A few rain/snow showers Friday night and a few rain showers Saturday. Lows 30-37 Friday night. Highs 41-48 Saturday. Wind N-NW 10-20 MPH.

SATURDAY NIGHT: Mostly cloudy. Lows 33-40. Wind NW 5-15 MPH.

SUNDAY: Partly sunny. Highs 47-54. Wind NW 5-15 MPH.

SUNDAY NIGHT: Mostly clear. Lows 33-40. Wind NW up to 10 MPH.

MONDAY: Mostly sunny. Highs 51-58. Wind NW up to 10 MPH.

DAYS 6-10 (APRIL 9-13)

High pressure and fair weather April 9. Unsettled weather potential returns mid period before improvement late period. Temperatures near to above normal.

DAYS 11-15 (APRIL 14-18)

Mild and fair to start, then a cooling trend with potential unsettled weather follows that as high pressure is replaced by a low pressure trough.

134 thoughts on “Thursday April 4 2024 Forecast (7:43AM)”

  3. Thanks TK. Heavy sleet now mixing with snow here in Coventry. 33F. Deck is white.

    No cancellations or delays here but roads are getting slushy and a few of the buses are running late.

    In the rain gauge. 1.75” on the event though it may be clogged with ice by now. A ridiculous 20.56” already for the first three months of the year.

  6. mixed sleet/snow here. 2.25″ now. I see a firehose setting up on radar. If it ends up being more snow than sleet, I’ll be in trouble. Yikes.

  7. Just got a red echo that intensified right over us and dropped hail. It definitely was not sleet but maybe graupel. It was bouncing up in the air off the grass and coated the ground and street.

  9. Thanks, TK!

    1.64″ in the bucket at 38 degrees.

    Two hands on the wheel morning commute.

  10. Good morning and thank you TK.
    Has switched over to SNOW here in JP.
    Sleet was pelting the house in the wee hours and woke me up, which takes some doing!
    Ground is covered with a heavy coating, 1/4 or so, perhaps a tad more.

    The HRRR had this sleet nailed the whole way.
    When “some” mets were calling for all out rain, I was wary as I felt sleet might be involved and it was.

    When the HRRR is right it is RIGHT, but when it is wrong, well then all bets are off. 🙂

  11. Thanks TK !

    Brief lull on tide guage around high tide.

    Now, the tide is rising more, almost 1 hr after high tide.

    The surge is at 3.79 ft !!! (13.32 vs expected 9.53 ft)

  13. Pounding sleet in Marshfield under one of those echoes.

    The room is silent as the kids take MCAS and the noise is so noticeable !!

  14. The tide, for a little bit longer may not be able to really drop.

    The combo of the low approaching the coast, lowering the pressure which raises the ocean level a few inches and the onshore flow, the buoys east of NH are gusting to 60, Logan to 59, are going to hold this water in.

    Eventually, maybe by 10 or 11, the drop in the actual tide will be enough to overcome that, but while not the highest tide weve dealt with, I might be one of the longer high tides.

  17. Boston, has essentially hit the 4 ft surge mark.

    13.18 ft vs 9.19 ft expected.

    The surge is growing because the tide isn’t dropping as quickly as it should be.

  18. Thank you for a great forecast on this storm TK!

    It was one miserable walk from the car to the office this morning. I agree with Tom, it felt even colder than yesterday.

  20. Huge gust of wind and nothing but sleet.

    Roadway along the shore is closed. Surge is over the wall and traffic is a MESS.

  24. Well we have one walk of shame. Will we get two. I can’t decide if I’m in the retrac camp or mark camp. But am loving this one.

      1. You are right of course. I’m only partly awake. And you just reminded me of the reason for the it can snow well into April and then maybe a bit more camp

  27. Saw the discussion on the previous blog re: wind in 2023. It’s definitely a case of recency bias. The year ended with the worst non tropical wind event that I can remember in terms of damage. The rest of the year was very calm.

    1. Not sure if it’s sutton or our neighborhood setup but string winds are typical for here. Sutton center always seems to have some. And with wind a bring spooky for horses we are very aware of them when at the barn.

    1. Intensity vs sun angle.

      Column should now be cold enough for snow, but now mid morning, strong sun will have lighter stuff fall as rain.

      elevated areas, this snow vs rain will kick in there also early afternoon.

  29. well, it’s official….I lost…..

    I think I made that call about six weeks ago and to think we went through the back have of February and all of March without 3″ or more in a single event here in Holden is still just brutal for snow lovers. Has to be less than 10% chance of that.

    Either, way, here’s the official measurement so far and my walk of shame. (snowing still at a decent clip for April)

    https://imgur.com/a/MdQogMJ

    1. But you gave it a good fight. Well done and as I’ve said several…or more…times here. Thanks for the fun. And for your honesty.

      I think I told you I’d saved your post. It was Feb 23. The biggest miracle here is that I actually found where I’d saved it.

      https://ibb.co/SrbdtmT

      1. Thank you for that. I forgot when I did it!

        Glad you got to the spotter info! It’s super fun.

    3. And to continue. I’d forgotten you are a spotter. I emailed a few days ago to see if there are virtual classes. My email was forwarded to the person in charge of the spotter network in my area. I’m hoping it works out.

  31. I wonder if there was enough sleet to record as “snow” to measure? If Logan could receive 0.3” at least the final total seasonal would be in double digits (10.0”).

  32. My drive through quincy was crazy. I went down shore drive/wollaston and it was massively flooding. Waves splashing into the streets. I thought I was smart avoiding the flooding when I went down a side street to hancock st which heads into boston but then wound up sitting for an hour and a half in traffic when I was a ten minute walk away from my building I work in

    1. Oh noooo ugh. I am not seeing any posts in the Humarock fb page re flooding but Brant rock flooded.

        2. Dr. S., Newport Ave was a mess too, coming up from the sewer drains too, which usually happens from the marsh.

  34. IF you didn’t have enough of this system, your in luck.

    In weakened form, it will make a 2nd visit Saturday, which is looking like a gem of a spring day.

    The upper feature rotates southwest down the Maine coast

    https://www.pivotalweather.com/model.php?p=500wh&rh=2024040412&fh=39

    https://www.pivotalweather.com/model.php?p=500wh&rh=2024040412&fh=54

    And so does the low

    https://www.pivotalweather.com/model.php?p=prateptype_cat-imp&rh=2024040412&fh=39

    https://www.pivotalweather.com/model.php?p=prateptype_cat-imp&rh=2024040412&fh=54

    Oh joy !!

    1. Cool. Here it is one of those days that it snows for hours but very little accumulation. It just wants to melt to slush. But lovely mood snow nonetheless

  36. It looks as if the clearing line will beat the rain/snow line here in Middleborough. It’s starting to become a tad brighter after a very dreary and grungy morning.

  37. Thanks, TK. Sleet started in aft. here in Sudbury and was off and on all night.

    Also heard 2 crashes of thunder at some point in the night.

    We got about 2 inches of snow/sleet. A few flakes falling here now.

      1. This year’s ski season was a strange one. Bookends of good conditions. Thanksgiving and early Dec and then now in late March early April

  39. Enjoy the snow retrac! 🙂

    The good news is it’s probably not going to be quite enough to get the plow out, especially given the time of year. I would assume most of what you have is melted by end of the weekend.

  41. Please once more can I ask for prayers. The twins were born by C section somewhere around 5:30 pacific time. One was in a bit of distress. Her parents have not heard anything since then. I just got this txt from Mac’s brother

    From cam right now

    After five hours his wife finally called L&D unit to learn if everyone was OK. Spoke very briefly (15 seconds) with their daughter who responded in a subdued manner. They were in a meeting with a pediatrician. Whatever it is they are not sharing with family. We don’t know anything else, sex of babies or anything. Please pray for the babies. Please pass on to kids.

    1. And then this arrives from my necessary husband to Mac’s brother . God is Great

      Finally, 7 hours later.
      Update! C-section was a success this morning and S gave birth to two beautiful babies. 5 lbs 4 oz and 4 lbs 14 oz. The pediatrician visited us and no NICU time needed at this point. Can’t wait for you all to meet these little ones. For now we’re just resting and settling in with these TWO. Thank you for all your love and prayers! ❤️❤️❤️ -S & J

  43. Thank you all. Sorry for the two posts. I would have deleted the first if I could. I just cannot believe they won’t need to spend some time in the NICU

  44. Alleluia, Vicki! Such blessed news! Praying that the precious little ones grow stronger quickly!!!! 🙂

  46. I’m so grateful for everyone here. I have lots of happy tears right now. Whw is a very special family. Thank you TK for creating this little group and thank you to everyone for your prayers and positive thoughts.

    My son sent this picture and said sun’s poking thru while actively snowing in April..safe to say all signs point toward it being a special kind of day.

    https://ibb.co/mS90X0f

  49. This has been one of the longest snow durations I have seen without getting much more accumulation out of it since this morning. We got a solid 4 inches of heavy wet snow in N. Pepperell. Still snowing lightly but not really accumulating. Looking forward to watching it all melt these next several days.

    1. Just saw this. I thought it happened way earlier in winter. But that could have been two winters ago

  50. Hi Vicki. Great news! If my arithmetic is correct, you have 10 lbs and 2 oz of joy! 🙂

    1. Hahaha. Indeed. And my niece is maybe five feet and light as a feather. Thank you, Longshot. Two great nieces or nephews. Or is it grand?

    2. Had the same here most of the day. I feel as if we had the same at least once and maybe twice early in the winter season.

  53. The final “snow” total for Boston (Logan) was no more than a Trace so there was no measurable amount of sleet. The way the sleet was continuously pounding overnight, it’s surprising it wasn’t at least 0.1 inch. Oh well.

    Seasonal 9.7” to date. Maybe next year? 🙂

    According to Eric, 1.51” total rainfall.

      2. You measure it exactly the way you would measure snow. Accumulated frozen precipitation.

        It can be a little difficult because of very thin layer is sort of hard to stick a ruler through and you’re somewhat restricted by the diameter of the sleet pellets if it is around a 10th of an inch. But you just give it your best estimate measuring it the same way you would accumulating snow.

        1. Makes sense. So as is the case with warmer weather snow that melts as it hits the surface, it’s not able to be a true measurement??

  56. 3 inches of sleet and snow in North Reading…starting to accumulate on the pavement again….although Winter was most certainly a dud….this was a good sign off before the next snow season

  58. Vicki, I am so so happy to hear the great news about mom and babies. I hope mom heals quickly and all will be home soon starting their new life as a family of 4.

  59. B’s need to do something about their power play. They are not getting it done as of late. Yes, these things can go in streaks, but playoffs not that far away.

    1. Power play has been horrendous, I think near the bottom if not the bottom since the all star break. Not going to to cut it in the playoffs if they want a deep run.

  60. Thanks TK. Great call from the WHW team, we nailed this one.

    Great news Vicki.

    MIL passed away this morning peacefully with a snowstorm raging outside. Well over 12 inches and was told close to 15-17. Took a look at NWS numbers and they matched up well.

    1. Thank you Hadi. Please accept my condolences. While your MIL is at peace, I know of very difficult it is for those who love her

  61. Wankum with a bad take on the eclipse as well tonight. Saying Northern England will be the best viewing but fails to mention here in SNE we will have a great view as well.

    “Here is what the map looks like on Monday during the total eclipse. A lot of the country will be in clouds and not get a good view of the eclipse. As of right now, northern New England may have the best view of the eclipse.”

  62. Hadi, my condolences re: your mother-in-law’s passing.

    Vicki, glad to hear about the news re: mother and babies.

  63. Weather question: While it has rained every day during my stay – usually just periodic light rain showers with some prolonged dry spells of cloudy skies – the sun has also shone every day at some point. If I add up all the hours of sunshine I might get to 8 or so in 8 days. What’s interesting is that it’s invariably been sunshine for brief periods in the morning. What could explain this? It’s not as if the parade of areas of low pressure stop traversing the British Isles in the morning.

  64. Wonder why no my rain totals were on the higher end of things, the sleet melted? Any thoughts? I am showing 2.87

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