Is Summer Weather Around The Corner? Widespread 80s Possible Later Next Week After Cool Stretch
BOSTON (CBS) -- Don't get me wrong. . . I love New England. But, sometimes living here can really test your limits. For my money, no season is as mentally challenging here as spring. You make it through a LONG winter, the birds start chirping again, heck maybe you even started mowing the lawn! Perhaps you are thinking about a weekend barbeque or hitting a Sox game. Then you look at the 7 day forecast. . . you gotta be kidding me.
Clouds for days. Off and on rain and drizzle. Highs in the 40s and 50s. This is nothing new - it happens each and every year at this time. While the rest of the country is leaping head-first into summer, we are left behind. But, we are stubborn. We cannot stay locked up in our houses for one more day. We head to Fenway for a May baseball game and we shiver under blankets. We huddle by the propane heater while we flip burgers on the grill. This is just how we roll.
The way I look at it, we have a very limited window to enjoy the outdoors here. Just do the math: There are 52 weekends in a year. Right off the bat you can cross out half of them from about late October through early April. Sure, maybe you get lucky in there for a few days but you certainly aren't hitting the beach or heading out on the boat. Now, of the remaining 26 weekends where temperatures MIGHT be warm enough, at least half of those don't work out for one reason or another. Any warm and sunny weekend before Memorial Day is like a gift from above. . . heck even Memorial Weekend can be a train wreck (see last year).
I guess what I am trying to say is, if you are like me, once we hit this time of year, I start to get real frustrated when we get stuck in a cloudy, cool pattern like we are right now. I feel as though Mother Nature is robbing us of our well-earned time. Look at the last few weeks. Just about every day in Boston has been below average and we have been hunting for a day or even a few hours of warm and sunny weather. Last Sunday was great. This Thursday stood out like a beacon of hope. And now, we are right back in the spring mud.
What makes this all the more depressing is that the overall weather pattern next week SHOULD be a very warm one. In fact, it will be for a large swath of central and eastern United States.
So, what's the deal?
A huge ridge is about to form in the jetstream. This is a summer-lover's dream. Unseasonable warmth will surge from Texas and the Deep South well up into Canada. I expect there to be records broken nearly daily and lots of 80s and 90s up the spine of our country. Unfortunately, there is a very big BUT for New England and the Northeast. The storm that is passing south of us today and tomorrow is going to stall over the ocean just offshore (naturally). This will create a persistent, onshore wind for the Northeast coastline. . . and this time of year, wind direction is everything. That ocean that we love so much in the summertime can be a major buzzkill in spring. Because it takes so much longer for the water to warm than the air, ocean temperatures this time of year are in the low 50s in our area. So, any significant wind blowing from the ocean to land is gonna really stunt our warmth. And this is the story this weekend and likely into next week.
The onshore winds will be strong enough this weekend to keep our entire area in the cool, marine air (50s).
By Monday and Tuesday, the coastline will certainly remain cool-ish but the farther inland you go, temperatures will get milder and milder.
Let's take Tuesday afternoon for example:
Current high temperature forecast. . .
In Boston: 50
In Metro West: 55-60
In Western MA: 60-70
In New York State: 70s
In the Upper Midwest: 80-90
As you can see, the farther away you are from the marine influence the more you can enjoy the summer-like pattern.
They say all good things come to those who wait right?
Well, by Wednesday, we should be able to sneak the 60s and perhaps low 70s closer to eastern MA.
By Thursday, our entire area could be well into the 70s
By Friday, we could be talking widespread 80+
And, there are even some signs that the warming trend will hold/continue beyond that!
Bottom line, we SHOULD get there. . . EVENTUALLY. And when we do, it will be all the more glorious right? Nobody can ever accuse us New Englanders of not putting in the time and work or not earning our good days.
We'll keep you posted! This weekend might be a good time to dig out the bathing suits or perhaps treat yourself to some new digs because maybe, just maybe, summer is just around the corner.
Follow Terry on Twitter @TerryWBZ
