A Garden Killing Freeze Is Expected Tonight; A Nor’Easter Is Likely To Bring Rain & Gusty Winds From Sunday Afternoon Until Tuesday Afternoon Across Western & Central Mass

For Tonight: An area of high pressure will build right over our area during tonight. This will lead to nearly calm winds along with clear skies. This combination will help to cause temperatures to fall quickly to near or below freezing during tonight.

This means that a widespread garden killing freeze looks likely tonight across all of Western and Central Mass. If you want to save any plants that you have outdoors, bring them inside or cover them. Also, cover your flowering bushes if you want to save them.

Low temperatures tonight will be between 29 and 34 Degrees. Some of the normally colder spots will likely see low temperatures closer to 25 to 27 Degrees. Winds will be North to Northwest at less than 5 mph.

Friday: Plenty of sunshine is expected throughout the day on Friday with high temperatures between 55 and 60 Degrees. Winds will be Southwest at 6 to 12 mph.

Saturday: That high pressure system will begin to shift to the east during the day on Saturday.

Skies will start out sunny to partly sunny during the morning with increasing high clouds expected during the afternoon. High temperatures will be between 60 and 65 Degrees. Winds will be South at 5 to 10 mph.

A Nor’Easter Looks To Bring Rain & Gusty Winds From Sunday Afternoon Until Tuesday Afternoon: A coastal storm system moving northward along the Eastern Seaboard looks to bring rain, which may be heavy at times, along with gusty easterly winds to all of Western and Central Mass starting on Sunday afternoon and lasting through Monday and even into Tuesday.

An area of low pressure is expected to take shape near the coasts of South Carolina and North Carolina during the day on Saturday. This low pressure system is then expected to strengthen as it heads northward reaching about the Jersey shore by later Sunday into Monday. That storm may temporarily stall somewhere between the Jersey Shore and the south coast of New England during Monday before it turns eastward and heads offshore on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The slow movement of this storm system as it gets near Southern New England means that there could be a prolonged period of rain, some of it which may be heavy intensity, as well as a prolonged period of gusty easterly winds, which could lead to, unfortunately, a lot of the leaves to be stripped from the trees prematurely.

Here is my latest forecast for Sunday through Tuesday based on what I’m expecting in terms of storm impacts on our area:

Sunday will be cloudy with rain overspread the area from south to north during the afternoon. High temperatures will be between 55 and 60 Degrees. Easterly winds will increase to 10 to 20 mph with gusts to 30-35 mph during the afternoon.

Rain is expected throughout Sunday night and the rain may be heavy at times. In addition, it may be windy with East winds of 20 to 30 mph with gusts to 40 mph. Low temperatures will be near 45 Degrees.

Rain is expected to continue throughout the day on Monday & once again, the rain may be heavy at times. It may also continue to be windy throughout the day on Monday with East winds of 15 to 25 mph with gusts to 35-40 mph. High temperatures Monday will be near 55 Degrees.

Periods of light rain looks possible during Monday night. Northeast winds look to decrease some to 10 to 20 mph. Low temperatures will be between 40 and 45 Degrees.

Tuesday looks cloudy and it appears there may be periods of light rain from time to time. High temperatures will be between 55 and 60 Degrees.

Latest indications seem to be pointing towards rainfall totals that range between 1 and 2 inches. Most of that rain looks to occur during Sunday night and Monday.

I continue to keep close tabs on the progress of this coastal storm and I will be sending out more updates in the coming days.