New England has entered a stretch of quiet and dry weather for several days, though the temperature will feature a pretty big swing from week’s end to weekend.
All of the weather New England – and the entire northern tier of the United States – will see in the coming days comes as a product of a huge area of high pressure, or fair weather, migrating east-southeast from Canada to the northern United States.
South of this large dome of dry and cold air, a storm system loaded with Pacific and Gulf of Mexico moisture is soaking some of the Southeast and snowing on others, causing air travel delays and traffic trouble from Dallas and Houston to Nashville and Memphis to Raleigh and Charlotte.
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Here at home, subtle weather changes day-to-day will come from a shifting wind. Thursday’s northwest wind will couple with an atmosphere already favorable for puffy cumulus clouds to develop to create some healthy, bubbling clouds in especially our hills and mountains, where a flurry or two are possible.
For the rest of us, these fair weather clouds may shadow the sun at times and even a light breeze will be enough to create a wind chill some 10 degrees cooler than the actual high temperatures of 30 degrees south and 20 north, but by Friday the wind shifts just enough that some ocean-effect clouds will likely drift over Cape Cod during the day, perhaps even dropping some snow flurries from time to time while the rest of us remain sunny.
The puff of ocean moisture over the Cape Friday will dissipate by day’s end, and from that point forward the weekend will feature sun and clouds as a warm front crosses from west to east Friday night and opens the door to more moderate air, bumping temperatures into the 30s and 40s Saturday, and near 50 for some by Sunday afternoon!
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With dry weather expected, this opens the door to skiing on firm snow Thursday and Friday, softer snow Saturday and Sunday, great snowmobiling for extended rides and even puts a round of golf or a trip to the driving range on the docket when some courses are opened in snow-free parts of southern New England.
Next week starts dry on Monday with temperatures continuing to gradually rise ahead of the next storm system that finally arrives to New England from the west with mild showers by Tuesday and Wednesday.
As the storm marches from the central U.S. to the Northeast, it will carry a burst of snow behind it, and it’s possible we see rain showers end as snow showers or a burst of snow next Thursday depending upon how the storm evolves, but either way, another shot of cold and dry air is expected to start next weekend at the end of the exclusive First Alert 10-day forecast.
