A massive upper low from the midwest is diving south and take the entire weekend to finally reach the coast. This low will push energy, warmth, lift and moisture up the Atlantic seaboard for a strong developing low at the surface which will become our Weekend Nor’easter! High pressure is currently in place in Quebec, and is supplying dry air into New England with a light east-Northeast wind. Though clouds have moved in…enough dry air at the surface has prevented much rain from falling so far. The low level dry air will hold on as long as possible, before the rain will finally start to fill in southern New England Saturday. The peak of the storm occurs Saturday Night into Sunday. It will be a chilly, raw, wet, and windy weekend ahead. Full impact of the storm will be felt at the coast! The full weather details inside!

Saturday will be a beautiful day in Northern New England. A mix of sun and clouds with highs in the 40’s nearing 50. A great day for skiing and being outside despite all of our talk of a weekend storm.
Southern New England will feature more clouds, thus cooler temps and a better chance of a few showers.
The best chance of rain Saturday will be south of the Pike…especially in Connecticut & RI. Any moisture could be in the form of a light freezing rain in the Berkshires early on. Rain will struggle to fall north of the Pike and eastern facing coastlines during the morning…thanks to the dry air being supplied from our high to the north. By afternoon, rain will start to fill in a bit more in the south…so by sunset rain should be well underway. As our storm deepens and stalls south of the region, winds will be strengthening out of the east where winds be gusting to 30-50 mph or greater along southern New England’s coastline and hills.

Rain will become heavy Saturday night into Sunday morning. Gale force winds will be at the coast where winds will be gusting to 50+mph at the coast, especially on the Cape & Islands…where gusts exceeding 60 mph are possible. Strong winds and a saturated wet ground may topple trees on power lines and create power outages.

Heaviest rain will be found in Eastern Massachusetts where 3-5+” could fall by the time this is all over. The rain and wind will be heavy Sunday morning and gradually work it’s way up the coast into Northern New England by Midday Sunday and Sunday afternoon. Sunday will be a very chilly raw day as highs will struggle to reach 40 degrees in the rain and wind. The morning deluge will taper to a lighter rain south for the afternoon…so conditions will become slightly better for the St. Patrick’s parade in Southie….though it will still be raining on our Parade…the worst of the storm will be winding down.

Colder air being drawn into the backside of this low with a northeast wind will be just cold enough to change any rain over to accumulating snow in the northwest hills Saturday Night…the best place for accumulating wet snow will be in the Monadnock Region, Green Mountains and the Berkshires where over 3-6″ of snow could occur above 1200′

Seas will be building off the coast to 10-20 feet with this storm. A prolonged onshore wind will allow a piling of water during the high tides which will cause more beach erosion and the potential for minor coastal flooding. We will have to monitor each high tide cycle. Luckily we are currently in a low astronomical tide so that should keep problems at a minimum. Still a surge of 2 feet is likely with the battering waves which will help to flood your typical flood-prone areas.

Lingering rain could last into Monday Morning before our Low pulls away. High pressure will build in for the Midweek with sunshine and warming temps into the 50’s just in time for St. Patrick’s Day.

Don’t Forget!

Daylight Savings Begins this Weekend. We will be springing ahead 1 hour before going to bed Saturday Night…officially 2 AM Sunday….Sunset Sunday 6:49 PM!

New England has deep snow and plenty of sunshine, for the best skiing this side of Powder. There is hope for a continuation of this great weather into at least part of the weekend. And Maine may miss this the weekend rain altogether. Check this video of Cranmore, provided by Ski New Hampshire. Trails counts are highest, and snow pack deepest of the winter.

A little bit of everything across the nation today

Yesterday I was thinking that steadier showers may try to make their way into southern New England tomorrow, but that does not look like the case (which is good news, right?). Northern New England may even hold on to some filtered sunshine through the day on Friday, while central and southern New England stay mostly cloudy.

My current thinking is that some patchy light rain and drizzle will develop on Friday night and early Saturday in southern New England. Steadier rainfall will move in during the afternoon and evening from southwest to northeast, reaching as far north as southern VT and NH. The heaviest rain arrives overnight Saturday and Sunday morning, falling the hardest south of the MA Pike. I’m still thinking rainfall totals will generally run between 1-2 inches for much of New England (lesser amounts in the North Country). A persistent onshore flow will continue through the weekend, gusting at times over 40 mph at the shore.

The storm will pass south and east of Nantucket on Monday. Counter-clockwise flow around this area of low pressure means that a north-northeast wind will wrap colder air down from eastern Canada into New England. In turn, we could be dealing with rain AND snow showers early Monday, although little if any snow should accumulate.

Random side note: 4 of my friends from my grad school days down at Florida State are visiting Beantown for the first time this weekend (2 coming from Texas, 2 from Florida)! I told them they should have come last weekend because the weather was perfect! Oh well, we’ll just need to have the umbrella handy while we tour the city.

Will update you tomorrow on any changes. Have a great Thursday!

There’s nothing like take a moment to relax and enjoy Sky Scenes – photos from across New England submitted by you! Ogunquit, ME, Sunderland, MA and Conway, NH are a few of the locations we visit in this mornings segment.

Do you have your own pictures you’d like to send us? It takes mere moments to sign up for a Flickr account and start uploading directly to the Sky Scenes group, where every one of the thousands of pictures I’ve received are posted. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE EASY INSTRUCTIONS TO SUBMIT YOUR PHOTOS!

To see the still image gallery, displaying a large number of air-quality photographs we’ve received (but not necessarily had time to air all of), CLICK HERE!

To peruse the video archive of our on-air segments, click the “Sky Scenes” tab at the top of our Weather Blog, here at WeatherNewEngland.com.

You’ll need those shades again today because the sun just won’t stop shining (and I’m ok with that)! We’re going on Day 5 of beautiful weather here in New England, but this trend won’t last too much longer, so enjoy it while it lasts. Take a look at the forecast diagram for Concord, NH above…notice the daily sunshine duration row…ZERO sun forecast for Friday through Monday. Check out other cities by heading to weather.us. Tomorrow will start off with sunshine, but clouds will increase throughout the day in advance of the next storm. Thursday night could feature a few light showers and areas of drizzle, but there is enough dry air in place across the region that the bulk of the moisture will hold off until the weekend.

Southern and central New England will get into steadier rain on Friday and Saturday, while northern New England stays mostly dry. Bands of heavier rain will organize on Saturday night, eventually spreading into northern New England. An east wind may increase to gale force overnight on Saturday too, bringing the potential for some minor coastal flooding. Periodic rain will continue on Sunday, possibly mixing with snow in the mountains of Maine, and tapering to showers in southern and central New England.

By the end of the weekend, we could be looking at widespread rainfall totals between 1 to 3 inches. Combine that with a melting snow pack across the northern interior and flooding of our streams and rivers becomes a concern…certainly something to monitor over the coming few days.

On Monday, colder air will wrap around the backside of the storm allowing off and on rain showers to change to snow showers possibly as far south as the higher elevations of southern New England. The entire storm shifts east on Tuesday, meaning sunshine returns along with temperatures around 50!

Keep you posted on the weekend…have a great day!

Meteorologist Matt Noyes shares video he took just yesterday of the wonderful 4th grade students at the St. Agnes School in Arlington, MA!

It’s time for another wonderful set of Sky Scenes, all thanks to you! Today we catch a glimpse of the beauty in Thornton, NH, Newburyport, MA and Sebago, ME – just to name a few…enjoy!

Do you have your own pictures you’d like to send us? It takes mere moments to sign up for a Flickr account and start uploading directly to the Sky Scenes group, where every one of the thousands of pictures I’ve received are posted. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE EASY INSTRUCTIONS TO SUBMIT YOUR PHOTOS!

To see the still image gallery, displaying a large number of air-quality photographs we’ve received (but not necessarily had time to air all of), CLICK HERE!

To peruse the video archive of our on-air segments, click the “Sky Scenes” tab at the top of our Weather Blog, here at WeatherNewEngland.com.

What a gorgeous stretch of weather we’ve had across New England over the past several days! Temperatures yesterday soared well into the 50s and lower 60s. Portland, ME broke their previous record high of 54° (1995) reaching 56° and Bangor, ME tied their previous record of 52° (1995).

Today will be slightly cooler in the wake of a weak cold front passage overnight, but highs will still come into the 50s in southern New England, 40s central and 30s in the North Country. This cold front also brought in a reinforcing shot of dry air, and in turn, sunshine will be the rule once again this afternoon.

Wednesday will be a few degrees cooler along the coastline as a weak sea breeze develops during the afternoon. By Thursday, clouds will be on the increase, although aside from a few showers late in the day, we should remain dry. The steadier rain will hold off until after dark.

More rain and potentially some mountain snow is forecast for Friday and the weekend as a slow moving storm currently over the nation’s midsection will head towards New England, eventually moving east of the region by the beginning of next week. This could even mean some snow showers in the higher elevations of southern New England by Monday. We’ll have to watch this system closely and fine tune the details in the days to come, but for now, plan on unsettled weather Friday through Monday.

So enjoy today!