Good morning everybody, we have a picture perfect late-March day ahead, and I highly encourage you to get out in it and enjoy whatever piece of it you can because our weather is turning unsettled, wintry, and inclement starting tonight with potent cold front that could cause early morning slippery travel for some, but before we jump into the details let’s first a check a note from our Sponsor, Tandem Bagel Company:
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A NOTE FROM OUR SPONSOR:
Dave Hayes The Weather Nut is Sponsored by Individual Community Members, Patrons & Tandem Bagel Company… No matter the weather, Tandem Bagel is always there for you at several valley locations to make your mornings brighter! With bagels baked fresh daily (including Gluten-Free options), house-whipped cream cheese, coffee, and tons of lunch options, Tandem is the perfect quick stop for lunch, breakfast, or a coffee and bagel to go. Find them in Easthampton, Northampton, Hadley, Florence, and West Springfield, or use their super-streamlined online ordering tool by visiting their website.
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Folks, I can’t emphasize just how awesome today is going to be! Highs in the upper 40s to mid 50s, light wind, sunny skies, dry, just an easy-on-the-bones day, especially for the older folks who in time learn to appreciate the little helpfulnesses and Mother-Nature assists!

So, get out and enjoy it, because once the sunsets we’ve got at least 72 hours of dynamic, changing, seesaw weather starting tonight.

A sharp and potent cold front will be careening through the region with some vorticity, which refers to atmospheric spin.

These negatively-tilting frontal passages tend to bring more dynamics in play, and this one looks like it could mean business for some of us.

It’s not a long-lasting event, but a brief blast between 10pm and about 2am from west to east across the greater WMass region.

Clouds increase after sunset, and temps will drop into the 30s to about 40º just before midnight as the front comes in.

Strong convergence of air and skyward lift around the front will cause a precipitation line to form, and it may start as rain, graupel or rain/snow mix as it moves into the region.

However, with much colder air and a wind shift right behind the front, any wetting of the roads could freeze quickly as snow falls on top of that and temps drop.

This potential scattered flash freeze on road ways is more likely to occur in the high terrain west of the I-91 corridor in far northwest CT, WMass and SVT, so if you are out in the pre-dawn hours or have a very early Thursday morning commute, watch your surfaces when traveling.

A coating to 2″ could fall as snow squalls work through the region, and parts of SVT may even see a quick 2-4″!

Luckily this all happens before dawn, away from the commutes, squarely in the middle of the night. Lows will be in the 20s.

Northwest winds ramp up quickly Thursday morning, and wind chills will likely be in the teens for a time, and even in the single digits in the western hilltowns, Berkshires and SVT early Thursday morning!

Wind chills improve into the 20s for the day, but with highs only in the low to mid 30s with northwest winds gusting 25-40mph, we’re going to be visited by Winter on its way out the door. It’ll be sunny, and lows will drop to either side of 20º as winds tamp down and radiational cooling maximizes.

Then we move straight into Spring, with high pressure kicking east off of the Carolina coast and sending southwesterly flow into the region Friday into Saturday.

Any partial Friday morning sunshine gives way to building clouds, and highs will reach the 45-50º range. We should be overcast by later afternoon, but showers should hold off until after sunset at this point.

This may allow some snow to mix in over southern VT when showers do move in, but everything should change to rain showers at night with lows in the mid 30s to low 40s as a warm front pushes into the region.

By Saturday, we’re well into the warmer air with highs expected in the upper 50s to mid 60s with a rainy morning into the early to mid afternoon with about half an inch to an inch expected by Sunday.

We may break things up to more scattered showers late Saturday afternoon into the evening before it quits, ending as a few snow showers with lows in the 20s.

Sunday is cooler, but sunnier and breezy with highs in the 40s, and Monday looks to feature fair weather with highs rebounding into the 50s before another front brings some showers Monday night into Tuesday.

Spring is starting to spring, folks, and we’re headed into April!

Have a great day!

BE KIND
“Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you’ve got a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies: Goddamn it, you’ve got to be kind.”
–Kurt Vonnegut