As I type this I have the Rolling Stones #Shattered playing, granted the song is about the 70s & 70s lifestyles while for me, in this blog, pertains to meteorology. Now that we got that long & awkward disclaimer out of the way…. #Shattered is certainly what happened to our record high temps across New England today! In particular, Worcester and Boston finished with these numbers:
Impressive, most impressive. Records also fell for Providence RI, Concord NH as well as Burlington VT. The reason for the record warmth as well as a continuation of warm weather is the jet stream. Once again, it has found itself into this position:
That jet stream divides the continent between warm & cold air. Two years ago February 2015 was one of Boston’s coldest months in recorded history and the jet stream delivered continuous cold from northern Canada for the month! Welp, this winter the jet stream hasn’t been doing that. La Nina is the main reason as La Nina’s often produce jet streams that look like that in the picture. No different this year as we have seen several warm days since mid January. Granted, there has been some cold & snow in all three winter months but we have been able to get nice breaks in-between the cold/snowy episodes.
Tomorrow is another warm day but more clouds around as well as the threat of the morning shower prevents a perfect 10 from this judge–still nice tho! Saturday will be mild as well but like tomorrow, a fair amount of clouds and a renewed threat of showers by evening makes a perfect score more challenging. Those Saturday night showers are tied to a cold front that will end our spring preview and send the 60s out to sea by Sunday:
Even when it does cool off, the numbers are still above normal! In fact, we may not see below normal temps in New England until the first weekend of March (and I’m not even sold on that!)
Enjoy the warmth…April is coming.
~JR