The recent chilly air is easing regionwide across New England as the center of high-pressure drifts slowly east of the region, allowing a light and variable morning wind to turn and blow gently from the southwest during the second half of the day, helping temperatures to reach 35 to 40 degrees even under lots of clouds.
Typically, high pressure delivers fair weather — while the sky may not reflect that with more than just breaks of sun Wednesday, the light wind and lack of snowflakes is a sure sign. In fact, closer to the center of the fair-weather cell, a clear sky Wednesday morning allowed northern Maine to drop as cold as 20 degrees below zero.
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Breaks in the clouds will grow later Wednesday into Wednesday night, but after limited morning sun Thursday, clouds will fill in again ahead of an approaching cold front attendant to a weak storm center moving west to east along the U.S.-Canadian border.
Along the storm track, in northern Maine, up to four inches of snow will fall, while the mountains see Thursday snow showers and central to southern New England sees only a late day to evening scattered rain or snow shower that should last into the overnight near the South Coast.
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Friday, cooler air will be moving into New England, though it won't be a sudden transition — high temperatures should still reach 40 degrees for some of southern New England with scattered rain and snow showers, particularly later in the day that may drop a scattered coating Friday evening before ending.
The new air for this weekend will bring incredible weather for winter sports and outside winter plans, regionwide, with a fair sky Saturday, sunshine Sunday and daytime highs in the 30s with only a light northwest wind.
On a larger scale, the weather pattern through the weekend into next week will be dominated by a jet stream configuration known as a "block" — a slow-moving weather pattern that stalls the storm-steering jet stream winds aloft.
Weather
For the Plains States, this stalling pattern will mean persistent unsettled weather, the upper Midwest and Great Lakes will see mild temperatures, and New England will find a status quo — a cool but not cold, temperature regime with big storms unlikely, even as a passing disturbance at midweek next week touches off a few snow showers.
So, for the time-being, our exclusive First Alert 10-day Forecast brings promise of a fairly benign stretch of weather.
