New England Readies for Returning Warmth

We’re coming off a holiday weekend that featured cold in the wake of a deadly winter storm that swept the Eastern two-thirds of the nation at the end of last week. 

Now, not only is New England set up for a more tranquil stretch of weather, but much of the rest of the Lower 48 follows suit. 

The intense cold is quickly relaxing across the country, and while Monday starts the week with a distinct winter chill in the Northeastern quarter of the country and snow falling in the nation’s midsection, our First Alert team is predicting highs in the 50s by the upcoming New Year’s Weekend. 

In the interim, a system producing light snow is diving southeast from the Upper Midwest to the Tennessee River Valley Monday, dropping snow as far south as Memphis but missing New England as a small dome of high pressure – fair weather with dry air – cuts most of the moisture off from making a run this far north. 

Instead, clouds thicken Monday afternoon and evening as a piece of northern jet stream energy approaches, moisture-starved enough that nothing more than overnight flurries or isolated snow showers are expected, forecast to be gone for returning sunshine Tuesday after dropping no more than an isolated coating. 

Dry weather continues Tuesday in Central and Southern New England, though weak disturbances aloft will promote healthy cloud growth and scattered snow showers in the Northern Mountains each day Monday through Wednesday, dropping a coating up to two inches of snow with two to four inches in far Northern VT. 

Elsewhere, a gradual warming trend takes place this week, with variable clouds each day (Wednesday may dawn with clouds and a few snow showers early, even into parts of Northern MA), en route to daytime highs around 50 degrees by Friday! 

This warming comes as a strong and persistent high pressure dome sets up over the Western Atlantic, encouraging a repetitive southwest and southerly flow in the clockwise flow of air around its center. 

This also deflects the active storm track to the west of New England, meaning the counter-clockwise flow of air around storms in the North-Central United States will deliver warmth ahead of them in some of the same areas recently pounded by winter storm conditions from the Great Lakes to the Northeast. 

In fact, on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, our First Alert Team expects high temperatures to reach 55-60 degrees with rain for the duration of the storm’s passage through New England. A similar wet and mild scenario is expected Tuesday into Wednesday of next week. 

In fact, the jet stream really doesn’t show signs of changing appreciably for an open window to more significant snow in New England until sometime around January 9^th or 10^th at the earliest, several days beyond the scope of our 10-day forecast!