That’s a wrap (or at least it will be at midnight) on meteorological winter 2016-2017. Full disclosure, last November I thought with La Nina on the playing field it would lead to a much colder winter than last winter but that didn’t happen. Oh sure, it was technically “colder”…
….but not quite what I had in mind. I thought we would see normal winter temps—December was pretty close to normal but both January & February were each in the top 10 warmest for their respective months. It is what it is….this winter will go into the books as the 5th warmest winter on record for Boston.
Now it’s on to spring and the same pattern that brought us the winter warmth is likely to hold for spring—plan on a mild spring for New England. Tomorrow is indeed the first day of meteorological spring and it looks to be very warm–many towns likely reaching the mid 60s. The record for Boston (and Worcester) is 63 and I think for both, we can do it….Boston close to 65 and Worcester around 63.
This warm pattern will come at a price tomorrow…..showers & thunderstorms. A powerhouse spring storm this evening located in Iowa head for southern Canada tomorrow and that will whip a cold front through New England late tomorrow evening. This front will be responsible for 3 rounds of showers & thunderstorms. The first is late tonight, likely gone by 7am Wednesday and also not likely to include lightning/thunder. The next round looks focused around midday–showers & t-storms likely but not expecting severe weather. the final wave of thunderstorms is slated for tomorrow evening and some of the storms *could* be locally strong/severe:
It’s that evening round where we’ll have to watch. Parts of western New England looks like the highest chance of strong/severe storms and with so much jet stream energy punching through the thunderstorms, some of the storms could rotate. Rotating thunderstorms sometimes lead to tornadoes. As of this evening, I think the area with the greatest risk of an isolated tornado would be in western Connecticut:
For our part of New England, some of the thunderstorms could have strong wind gusts (over 50 mph). More on this tomorrow. In any event, much colder air sweeps into the Northeast for the end of the week/weekend as high temps will struggle to make it out of the 20s. Ah yes, springtime in New England.
~JR