The middle part of December certainly has not felt like mid December should. Temperatures have been running above average the last few days and will stay that way for the rest of the work week. As of about the half way point in the month, we’re sitting over 3° above average in Boston. Those gray squares indicate days that ended up exactly average.
Today we know is another “gold square day” with temperatures significantly above average. We’ll wait to fill out the calendar until the day is over, but as of the writing of this blog (3:30pm) the high in Boston was 51° — well above the average high of 43°. Our morning low temperature was no different.
Away from the coastline, temperatures were a little cooler and a little more seasonable. But we all know it could be much worse in December.
It’ll be a little cooler tomorrow morning when you step out the door, but still far from bitter cold.
Don’t worry, just because we have a chilly start to the day we’ll still have a mild afternoon. Temperatures will head back to the 40s and we’ll stay above average through the end of the work week. But all good things must come to an end… the cold air will return for the weekend.
We’re watching two precipitation chances coming in the next few days. The first will be in here Wednesday night. Of course with the mild temperatures, these will be rain showers. Scattered showers will develop around 7-8:00 pm and continue on and off until about 6-7:00 am Thursday. The showers will be light and it won’t rain all night. If you have dinner plans on Wednesday, pack the umbrella and if you commute on the front half of the morning commute, you might be using your windshield wipers Thursday morning. Other than that, it’s very low impact and essentially all of Wednesday and Thursday are dry. In Thursday’s case, not just dry but also warm as we head to near 60°.
As the colder air takes hold for the weekend, our second precipitation chance arrives Saturday afternoon and Saturday night. Right now we’ll call it a rain/snow mix as it looks like some of us will see rain and some of us will see snow. As is the case with most, if not all of our winter storms in New England, it’s entirely track dependent. Right now the model ensembles are more in support of a cold rain for a majority of us and just snow across our northern spots (Route 2 and north). BUT there are still some models that hold on to the potential of a good snow for all of us. We’ll watch it and fine tune that forecast over the next few days.
If you have Christmas decorating to do, you still have a few great days for it in this mild stretch we have. Tomorrow (Wednesday) will be a great day for it with sunshine, mild temperatures and light wind. Thursday will be decent. Temperatures are near 60°, yes, but we’ll also have a pretty good wind to fight if you choose that day. Friday the sun returns, and while there will still be a little bit of a breeze it’ll be less than Thursday. If you need to wait until Saturday I’d shoot for the morning as that rain and snow moves in Saturday afternoon.
