Tonight we cheers to new beginnings – but we also see a familiar frigid forecast. Are we getting used to this yet?? Temps for those New Year’s Eve revelers that chose to brave the elements will be in the single digits to around 0° for most – but what really matters are the wind chills, which will get down to -15 to -25°! That’s not just uncomfortable cold… that’s dangerous cold. Frostbite can set in in just 30 minutes when skin is exposed to conditions like this. A Wind Chill Advisory is in effect through noon tomorrow – though, it doesn’t get much better for tomorrow afternoon with wind chill still some -5 to -15° despite a good deal of sunshine.
Tomorrow we’ll be watching for potential records. It looks like Boston will have a low around 0° or maybe -1° tomorrow morning, which isn’t cold enough to beat the standing record of -3° (1918). Worcester could see a new record low though, if it gets colder than the standing record of -5° (1918), which I think it could. Even if Boston doesn’t see a new record low tomorrow, January 1st, 2018 will still likely end up on this list of the top 5 coldest New Year’s Days on record:
We’ll have clear skies through the day tomorrow, with the exception of some clouds and maybe some snow showers for the outer Cape (ocean effect). This will mean good viewing for the first full moon of the new year – which is a supermoon. The Moon is at perigee, it’s closest point of orbit to Earth, which makes the moon appear some 14% bigger and 30% brighter. It’s also the first of two supermoons in January – which will make our full supermoon on January 31st a “blue” supermoon (two full moons in one month).
We get a little relief from these frigid temps during the middle of next week – but it comes with a catch. We’ll be tracking a powerful coastal system moving up the East Coast Wednesday – Thursday. The track is still TBD; closer to New England would mean more snow and farther away would mean less. Average forecast error is somewhere around 150 miles three days out, so this forecast could change a lot over the next couple of days… So, we don’t have any specifics as far as how MUCH snow is on the way. I’d venture to guess that it’s fairly likely we get plowable snow for most (favoring higher totals for E. Mass.). We need to keep a close watch on this, of course. The one thing we can count on is that wind will be powerful Thursday into Friday – and the arctic air isn’t gone long… It comes back with a vengeance to wrap up next week.
Happy New Year and cheers to new beginnings!! – Breezy
