Yikes...
Hard to believe that last week we were smashing record high temps and this week we are talking about hard freezes and snowflakes! We have seen a huge shift in the atmosphere, something we have seen very little of over the last few months...blocking! There is a large block to our NE setting up and this will prevent colder air from traveling north of us...it will be forced south into New England...giving us that inevitable slap in the face!
Big concerns for gardeners and farmers across the region tonight as temps dip below freezing for the first time 15 days in Boston! If you haven't already, take precautions for anything you planted...cover annuals in the ground with a sheet and pull in potted plants to the garage or shed. We are looking at widespread 20s...a killing freeze!
The wind that is ushering in these very cold temps is blowing very strongly...and will continue to through most of tomorrow. This will create windchills during the night in the teens and tomorrow in the 30s...very Winter-like! This same wind is compounding another issue...high brush fire threat. We had a little rain yesterday but it was only a few hundredths of an inch...not enough...we need a solid soaking and that isn't coming. We will see a little rain however this week. On Wednesday, a warmfront will expand into the area...this will be the focus for quite a bit of cloud cover but limited rain...so just a few showers. Trailing the warmfront is the surface low and that will swing through New England on Thursday. The surface low has some better upper level support so there should be a steadier period of precip with it late Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Most if this will fall as rain but, at the tail end, at the coldest part of the night (as the sun is coming up) some wet snowflakes may mix in...but no accumulation is going to occur.