While the last two days were some of the coldest days of the season so far, I’d argue that they weren’t the worst days of the season to get outside. Yes, both yesterday and today were top three for coldest days (high temperatures) of the winter but if you remember back to those early January days, we had that gusty wind coupled with temperatures in the 20s which really made it miserable to be outside.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it hasn’t been cold, it has. But if you dress for it, it’s doable to get outside with the proper attire. At least on days like today the wind isn’t there to cut through every single layer you put on. This morning we had temperatures fall well below zero and afternoon highs rebounding to around 20° for most of us. With the sun and no wind, manageable to say the least.

Last night we had a few snow showers that moved across the Cape. Not much came out of it, a coating to an inch, but with the cold temperatures just about every flake that fell stuck to the ground. All of the falling snow was gone by sunrise this morning.

Speaking of snow, how about the snowstorm that hit the Gulf Coast the last few days! Can you even imagine? These were some of the notable snow totals from down there. I mean if we had this much snow in New England it would impact or day and our lives, let alone in an area that (in many cases) have never seen this much snow before in their lives! Milton, Florida set the state record for most snow. New Orleans’ official measurement at the airport (and what will go down in the history books) is 8″ but there were plenty of pictures and reports that showed a foot in parts of the city. Think of it as Boston and Logan Airport. It would be as if Logan measured 8″ of snow, that’s what would go in the record book, but Dorchester and Jamaica Plain saw 10-12″. There’s currently a discussion whether this is a record or not as some old newspaper clippings floating around show about 10″ in the city in 1895. However this wasn’t taken at the airport and there’s no “official measurement”. That’s for the data scientists as the National Weather Service to debate. Crazy either way!

In fact it’s a topsy-turvy winter. Cities in cold weather climates that typically see a lot of snow haven’t this year, and their winter snow totals are being rivaled by those down south. Boston’s winter snow total is 12.5″ but Minneapolis and Chicago are only at 9″ for the entire winter! Meanwhile Pensacola, Mobile and New Orleans are within an inch or so of them.

Ok, tangents are one of my great weaknesses so back to us and our temperatures moving forward….

Tonight will be another cold night but it won’t be as cold as the last couple. The last few nights we’ve fallen below zero but tonight I think we’ll stay above zero. It will still be cold as we fall to the single digits for most of us, but it’s better and at least we’re heading in the right direction. We’ll start with overnight lows in the single digits but rebound to about 30° tomorrow afternoon. You’ll wake up to a lot clouds tomorrow morning but sunshine will continue to develop as we go through the day.

Then we’ll hang out at this level for a few days. On average, we see high temperatures about 36°-37° this time of year and we’ll still stay below that, but it’s not nearly as cold as the last few days have been. Then, as we close out the weekend we’ll pull those temperatures back up closer to that average mark. So while we talk about a warm up, it’s certainly not a January heat wave, it’s just back to reality as we head into next week.

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