Is It Really March?

Ok, so I am just about completely recovered from my trip to Amsterdam and Ireland. It was quite the time with many stories, most of which are not fit for publication! We will just leave it at that with one quick footnote, the weather for my 6 days in Ireland was perfect! No rain and sunshine the majority of the time with temps in the low 50's. Absolutely perfect.

Now back to reality. Snow? Yes. It is coming and yes it is pretty normal to get snow in early spring. This winter has been up and down with its snowiness. When it snows, it comes in bunches. When it doesn't, we get nothing for weeks. Well the snow is back. But don't expect anything like we saw in January.

With that being said, it is already snowing out as I speak. Not much to speak of with this system. Expect 1-2 inches on grass and cars overnight but I doubt it sticks to the roads. More like 3-5 inches as you head further south.

The problem is the cold air doesn't want to go away. It will continue to be below normal temperature wise over the next 7-10 days. The cold air will keep getting reinforced by our old winter friend, a strong blocking high pressure system sitting over Greenland. That high won't move for the next week. Meaning cold but fairly quiet weather for us. While much of the rest of the country will be experiencing some pretty wild weather. So I suppose it could be worse.


For those aching for spring to come, patience. It will be here soon. With every passing day, we continue to get more sunshine from an increasingly stronger sun. Warm weather is realistically 3-4 weeks away.

Heyyyyyyyyyyy

I am back! And you have snow! WTF

Greg Goes Abroad!

The day has arrived. Europe will be getting their first (and possibly last) taste of Greg Porter. I think they are ready.

More to the point, will the weather be ready for me? You Boston people deal with more rain on Thursday/Friday and possibly some snow on Sunday. Not me! So without further delay, here is the expected weather for my destinations over the next week. Yes, this is quite possibly the most self centered post I have ever done but you know what? Who cares! Its my damn blog and I will do as I wish!

Amsterdam- Windy!! By the time I get there on Thursday morning, winds will be gusting out of the west at 30-40mph. That should make for a fun landing. Other than that, it looks to be cloudy with temps in the mid 40's. Sounds pretty familiar.

Dublin- My weekend in Dublin looks ( and this should be a big surprise) rainy! Saturday looks wet in the morning and cloudy in the afternoon. At least on Sunday it looks like we will get some sun! Both days will be in the mid 40's. So I guess I am technically going to a "warm" location for my spring break.

Assorted other Ireland cities - As we embark on our countryside tour of Cork, Dingle and Galway, the weather looks fantastic! Which is a good thing because I and my traveling partners will need all the help we can get trying to drive on the other side of the road. That should be interesting.

First up is Cork on Sunday into Monday and it looks nice. Partly cloudy with temps approaching 50! Or as they like to say 9 degrees Celsius. On a side note, my battle with the metric system should be interesting. Despite my love for all things weather related, I am a Fahrenheit guy. I may need to go the Brendan Connell route and write down the conversions in a notebook.

Dingle is next. Yes it is a funny name. But this is where the weather starts to look fantastic. High pressure settles overhead and we are looking at bright sunshine with temps easily into the 50's. Now that is what I am talking about!

From there we head to Galway and will be staying at a beautiful house in Athole. Once again, things are looking great weather wise. Which is a big deal for Galway. Being a city right on the coast and wide open to the Northern Atlantic usually means lots of rain and wind. But not next week! Both days are looking sunny and warm with temps in the 50's. I would imagine that it will be a bit colder overnight in Athole since it is further inland but since this town is pretty much off the grid, I can't confirm it.

And of course St.Patty's day in Dublin looks beautiful once again. Sunny,mild and drunk. That is probably a good forecast for all of next week really.

Anyways, I need to go finish packing since I have been writing this instead. I may try to update this once or twice during my trip but I certainly make no promises. Have a great St. Patrick's day all!

Nice Weekend Turns to Heavy Rain

Not too shabby this weekend! 58 degrees today and 54 degrees yesterday. Despite the cloudiness, the warm temps gave us a nice taste of spring and what is to come.

For the immediate future, heavy rain is on the way. A frontal system has been sitting to our west all weekend, slowly moving more north than east. Heavy precipitation in the form of both rain and snow has been falling just a 150 miles to our west but you would have never guessed it with our weekend weather. A series of low pressure systems have been developing along the front and our bubble of protection is about to end.

Light rain is already moving into the area as I write this and as we get later, the rain will get quite heavy. So heavy that the NWS has issued a Flood Watchfor our area. A good 1-3 inches will fall in a matter of 12 hours. Quite a lot of rain. Winds will be an issue too as the temperatures behind the front are quite cold compared to our 50 degree readings of the past few days.

Tomorrow will be soggy and yuck, but Tuesday and Wednesday will be nice days before more storminess returns late week.

Coming tomorrow, I will feature some Ireland weather in anticipation of my first venture to Europe!!

Long Range Forecast from Accuweather

Henry Margusity of Accuweather had some interesting things to say in his long range forecast for the beginning of spring.

"The weather pattern will remain stormy for another couple of more weeks. I was looking at the SOI Values, and they remain above 20, which means the La Nina is still roaring away. In addition, the NAO is heading to neutral, and the PNA is going to neutral, which tells me that a zonal flow with a buckling of the jet in the Midwest and East will persist. The implications are that storms will zip through the Western part of the country and strengthen as they get out into the Plains and Midwest. Severe weather, late-season snows, and heavy rains will occur with these storms, so again, I say watch every storm for some sort of extreme event."

Looks like March won't get any quieter. Although I am sure most of our storms will be rain. But don't rule out the possibility of one last snow storm!

Onto March! But First, a Taste of January

So its March 2nd! Welcome to the start of meteorological spring, with actual spring less than 3 weeks away.

After a record breaking January, the month of February seemed fairly tame. We hit 60 degrees twice. Boston never fell below 13 degrees. We "only" had 18.5 inches of snow. In fact, the majority of our precipitation fell in the form of rain. Despite our break from persistent storms, February did end up being above normal in terms of total precipitation. Even our slow months have been active!

But now it is March. Our sun is getting mighty strong. Any wind from the right direction combined with plenty of sunshine will push high temperatures well into the 50's (as we will see this weekend) As I said in an earlier post, we are on the front lines of the battle between winter and spring. We have seen a roller coaster ride of temperatures that looks to continue through this week and into the next. With every passing front, our temperatures seem to change dramatically. And there will be no better example of that than what we see overnight tonight.

As we speak, our winds have shifted from the mild southwest to the frigid northwest. With clear skies overhead and a strong pool of cold air moving into our region, temps will really bottom out. Suburban areas and higher elevations will be close to 0 while even Boston will get down to about 11 or 12 degrees. The other element will be the wind. Such a change in air mass usually always brings strong winds and tonight is no different. This is really impressive cold air considering how late we are into the season. I almost guarantee that this will be the last time that Boston sees temperatures this cold until next winter. So there is some good news!

Unfortunately, our strong March sun does no good tomorrow and Friday as both days will be pretty cold, especially tomorrow. Highs in the low 20's will be about 20 degrees below normal highs this time of year. Friday is better but again, still cold.

Don't be fooled by the warmer temperatures expected this weekend. Along with those 50 degree readings will be plenty of cloudiness and rain showers, the heaviest of which will likely be on Saturday.

From there, we turn our eyes to another coastal storm on Monday bringing a mixed bag to the region. Either way you cut it, Monday looks yuck. Long term forecast does show a tame, mild week after that though, which means my flight to Ireland should be nice and smooth!

Snow for San Franansisco! First time in 35 Years!

That's right. San Fransisco hasn't seen snow in 35 years but that streak will likely be coming to an end beginning tonight and into Friday.

A very cold and very unusual storm will be affecting the whole west coast for the next few days. A strong storm will move from the Pacific Northwest down the west coast and bring snowfall down to sea level in areas that never see it, including San Fransisco. If you know anything about weather on the west coast, specifically winter weather, you know that snowfall has everything to do with how elevated you are.

The mountains of eastern California, Washington and Oregon typically have very heavy snowfall totals in the winter. As do mountains in Western Nevada and Arizona. But these areas are situated 1500 feet above sea level.

While this next storm will give those areas plenty of snow as well (10-20 inches), it will be so strong and so cold that snowfall levels will drop down to 500 feet and it is anticipated that in some of the heavier precipitation bands, snow will be falling at such a strong rate that it will cut right through 500 feet and leave a coating on the sea level streets of San Fransisco! That should be a sight to see.

A coating of snow is one thing, but Las Vegas, yes the same Las Vegas that regularly hits 110 degrees in the summer, will see measurable snowfall from this system, in the order of about 1-3 inches. Something tells me that the outdoor pools will be closed this weekend.

What will be even worse for some people is the cold air that settles in over all of the west after this storm. Take a look at daytime highs in southern California on Saturday. LA may struggle to hit 50! San Diego too.

Wild weather indeed is in store for the country this weekend into next week. You can expect to hear about tornado outbreaks in the deep south as well as flooding concerns closer to home. These strong storms will continue to march across the country every few days. The next one for us will be tomorrow but as you can see below, the storm track is what we call and "inside runner". Meaning it cuts up the Appalachian Valley and gives heavy wet snow to the north and very heavy rainfall to us.


This type of track will be the trend for us for the near future, with no blocking high pressure in place to the north to help steer these storms to the coast. Expect the storm from the west coast to give us more soaking rainfall on Monday/Tuesday.

Many of you may be rejoicing that at least it is only rain and not snow but I remind you that we still have a very healthy snow pack throughout the region. Adding very heavy rain on top of that can lead to severe flooding. I don't see this as a big issue for Boston since most of our snow pack has melted already but if you travel just a little north and west of the city, here is where you will find the biggest concerns for severe flooding.

For now, remember to bring an umbrella with you tomorrow! Its going to be a soaker!