6/25/11 Saturday Brief Update

Good morning.  Here is a Saturday morning update for your Boston area weather.

Not much has changed, Expect some heavy showers this morning across the Northshore with plenty of low clouds.


I do expect this rain to move out by mid morning and by noon, could see some brightening skies and some peaks of sunshine around 1 and 3 PM.  Some clouds return by mid afternoon and an isolated shower and Thunderstorm is possible once again around 5 pm. This will be the conditions for the remainder of the day.

High of 70 today.

More clouds and rain in VT and NH.   Cooler in Maine where the warm air will struggle to get in today.

Sunday - Clearing in SE New England, highs in the upper 70s.  More clouds with a shower possible in Norther NH, VT and Maine.

6/24/2011

The good news is... the heavy rains are mostly over. The bad news, it will still stay cool and damp until Sunday.
 
A cold pool of air aloft over the Great Lakes will begin to move east today. This cold air aloft will continue to allow for an east flow of air off of the ocean to create cool temperatures, clouds and drizzle.

Cool air is dammed in New England, thunderstorms will form in PA/NY/NJ and push eastward tonight. The visible image shows the expanse of cloud cover associated with this low. The clearing over Minnesota and Iowa will be our weather on Sunday.

So for Friday, plenty of low clouds, drizzle, high only gets to 63!  Thunderstorms develop over NY, NJ and western CT later today. These storms may hold or at least keep their moisture to bring heavy showers and a possible thunderstorm into the evening hours tonight.

Saturday - Not a total washout of a day, it will be warmer with a scattered shower possible. Plenty of clouds, but could see a few breaks. A cool front finally pushes through on Saturday night to get the cooler ocean air a boost and our winds shift to the north west. A brief shower can be expected overnight Sat into early Sunday.

Saturday - A warm front will struggle to get through Eastern NH and into Maine, where temps struggle to get out of the 60's.  Warmest in the CT River Valley and in NY.

Sunday, the northwest wind will set up, which is a drying wind, will be over us will help provide for a sunny day with perhaps a few clouds and a high in the mid 70's. Yes the cool front will help it get warmer! 

Monday, some good sunshine and dry

Tuesday, strong south wind! Warm and more humid

6/23/11 Another one of those days & Ptown 4cast

Sometimes it is plain hard to forecast crappy weather. Especially when it will be in and out of various stages of weather, rain, thunder and even sun.  So until Sunday morning, the general forecast will be a mix of little bit of everything.

**Note- if anyone reading needs a specific forecast for a time frame or location, please let me know and I will be happy to provide you with a personal forecast!

Unlike previous forecasts there are no major blocks to stall the weather, however there is just a lot of energy coming in over New England. We are under the most active part of the jet stream.

Thursday - Way more clouds with rain developing again after 1 pm continuing overnight. Rain may be heavy with storms. A north east wind off the ocean will keep it very cool for this time of year with a high of 65 for today.

Friday - The wind off the ocean will be more of the weather maker for the day, keeping Boston in the clouds for most of the day, cannot rule out a scattered shower, but the day will be relatively dry. High around 65 again.

Saturday - More clouds,  weak low moves through, with a few breaks of sun later, a chance of a shower warmer with a high in the lower 70s.

Sunday - Clearing and pleasant high of 77, a drying west wind.

TROPICAL UPDATE:

A possible tropical cyclone could form in the NW Caribbean Sea later this weekend and track into the Gulf of Mexico toward the south Texas coast by later next week. Since there is no cyclone yet, this forecast is still subject to change. However, rain could be in store for a very dry TX coast.

Tropical Storm formation??

The GFS is forecasting a tropical cyclone to form early next week in the NW Caribbean Sea and track into the Gulf of Mexico.  This is the time of year for such development. Here is a shot of the wind field the model is forecasting.

Note: There is no tropical storm yet, just a model forecast.

6/22/11 Welcome Back Humidity

We sure do get spoiled here in New England when dry air moves in, it feels great, we don't sweat very easily and it is all around comfortable.  We measure moisture in the air by calculating the dew point temperature (Td).  Sunday, our dewpoints were in the 30's, today they have risen to 65 from the mid 50s yesterday.

We will be stuck in this airmass for the next few days, however it will not be overly hot as the wind will shift in off of the ocean keeping temperatures from rising.


We will be stuck on a boundary of warm humid air over the mid-Atlantic and the cooler high pressure over Maine. Showers will try to ride along this boundary over the next few days. 






Today - Morning patches of sun will give way to clouds. Rain should arrive between 11 and noon then another steadier batch from 5 & 7 pm today could be heavy in the early evening into the overnight. Thunderstorms are possible.

Thursday -  Clouds in the morning, should be dry for the commute, the showers return for mid afternoon and continue into Friday morning. They will be light, except if you get under a thunderstorm.


Friday - Clouds and scattered showers again cool ocean wind.

6/21/11 Happy Summer!

Today is the summer solstice! The longest day of the year!

Unsettled Weather Returns late on Wednesday and keeps us in an all too familiar weather pattern that we would like to forget about.

Tuesday - The last good day of the week with highs in the lower 80s and comfortable dewpoints and humidity.  A few clouds from time to time. A weak cold front should push through later in the day today. A spot shower may be experienced as the wind shifts to the east.


Wednesday - Will start out clear, maybe some fog, then high clouds build in throughout the morning and will increase throughout the afternoon. The wind will be in off the ocean providing for a cooler day right along the coastline.  Rain should hold off for most of the day if not until overnight.

A marine layer of air will be over Boston at least until Saturday keeping low clouds around and the possibility for showers through the period. Still not a washout. (if you recall two weekends ago, similar type of weather pattern)

Possible return to summer by Sunday with heat next week.

6/20/2011 All clear for now..

Two more dry and sunny days are with us for sure in the forecast.  A nice northwest flow out of Canada will keep temperatures seasonable, around 80 with comfortable humidity and no rain at least until Wednesday night.

A warm front approaches the region then and puts us back into a more summery airmass, more humid which can always produce random afternoon thunderstorms.

Mon and Tue look dry and comfy. Wednesday looks the same a few increasing clouds late. Scattered showers appear on Thursday and Friday, however it will not be a washout. The clouds will keep the temperatures cooler.

 

 

Summer Sunsets- A story of Time

With the first day of summer tomorrow, lets take a look at the longest day of the year in terms of sunsets across the country.

In the days prior to the railroad, time was all local. The time in Boston was different than the time in New York, or for that matter even in Worcester.  With the advent of railroad transportation and a need for accurate schedules between destinations, a uniform time was needed. This is when time zones were created. Now all towns in a certain zone would be the same exact time.

With the tilt of the earth on an axis of 23.5 degrees, the northern pole is facing the sun on the Summer Solstice.  So areas further north of the equator (which always has equal daylight) get more daylight and above the Arctic Circle, it is 24 hours of daylight. If you are a fan of longer daylight at night, the best places to live are north and west in a time zone.



Sunsets for areas in New England on the Summer Solstice


Nantucket, MA has the earliest sunset in all of New England, but areas further east like Fort Kent, Maine have a later sunset, due to the tilt of the axis of the earth and the increase in daylight the further north. (the opposite is true in Winter)

The map shows sunsets based on  Eastern Daylight Time Zone (EDT).

The earliest sunrise in the country is Van Buren, Maine at 4:36 AM (despite Eastport, Maine's claim of the earliest sunrise in the country, it is only true from mid August to late April)


Sunset across the U.S. on the Summer Solstice. 

I always wondered where would one want to live to have the longest daylight possible and who has the shortest.

(all times are respective of their correct time zones)

On the east coast, Miami, FL & Nantucket, MA have the earliest sunsets.

West Chattahoochee, FL has the earliest sunset in CDT at 7:45 PM.


The earliest sunset for the entire country is in southeast Arizona, (which does not observe Daylight Saving Time) at 7:24 PM MST


The latest sunsets in the country, if you want to have plenty of daylight to do outside activities are Isle Royale National Park, Michigan at 9:59 EDT and the border in Montana, North Dakota and Saskatchewan at 10:04 PM CDT


**Alaska has later times, but not included here.




Solar Noon

Prior to the time zone, every town based their time on solar noon, when the sun was the highest in the sky that day( true noon), it would be noon and everyone in that town would set their clock to this time.  

Solar noon can still be used today if you have a sun dial. An example today would be today in Boston solar noon would be at 12:45:59 PM EDTand in Worcester solar noon is at 12:48:53 PM EDT (New York - 12:57 PM EDT and South Bend, IN  - 1:46 PM EDT)

Or there is roughly a 1 minute difference for every 12.5 miles of distance.