Fairly Decent Weather Is Expected This Coming Week Across Western & Central Mass

For This Afternoon: An area of high pressure will build into the area this afternoon. This means that a mixture of sunshine and clouds can be expected throughout this afternoon with high temperatures near 35 Degrees. A northwest wind will gust up to 30 mph at times this afternoon. Tonight: That high pressure system will continue to build into the area tonight. This means that skies tonight will be clear and it will be quite cold, especially compared to the fact that December has been fairly mild so far. Low temperatures tonight will be near 15 Degrees. Monday: Plenty of sunshine is expected on Monday with high temperatures near 35 Degrees. Tuesday: A generally partly sunny day is expected on Tuesday with high temperatures between 40 and 45 Degrees. Wednesday: We are going to be watching two low pressure systems for Wednesday’s weather. One low pressure system is expected to track across southern Canada while another low pressure system tracks well to the east of the Cape. The big question is whether there will be any sort of phasing of the two storm systems or not. At this point, I don’t think there will be any sort of phasing as the northerly branch of the jet stream is just too zonal (moving directly in a west to east direction) and because of this, it wont be able to draw the offshore storm system northward. Based on everything that I’ve looked at, I think that Wednesday will probably feature a lot more clouds than sunshine across the entire area. In addition, there may be some passing rain showers across Central Mass while Western Mass stays mostly dry. High temperatures Wednesday will be near 40 Degrees. Thursday: An area of high pressure will control the weather on Thursday with lots of sunshine expected. High temperatures Thursday will be near 35 Degrees. Christmas Eve: Sunshine looks likely for Christmas Eve with high temperatures between 35 and 40 Degrees. Christmas Day: We are going to be watching an area of low pressure and its associated frontal system for Christmas Day as it could bring some weather impacts. As always, the track of the low pressure system is going to be important in determining whether we see a Green Christmas or whether we actually see a White Christmas. Even though some of the weather forecast guidance seems to suggest several hours of accumulating snow on Christmas morning, I’m not convinced that this will occur. We will have a southwesterly mid and upper level wind flow in place, which will try to push in milder air with this storm system. Because of this, unfortunately, I wouldn’t be surprised if this system ends up being more rain than snow. That said, I think that we could see a bit of snow to start with on Christmas morning that changes to rain for Christmas afternoon. One factor that may favor a more southerly track of the low pressure system and thus possibly more of a snow threat is that there’s the possibility that there may be some blocking in the atmosphere over far eastern Canada. This blocking could cause the storm system to take a more southerly track leading to colder air to drain southward into the region. If this happens, it could mean more of a snow threat for Christmas Day. I’m not forecasting this to happen right now, but it is a possibility and it is something that I’ll be keeping an eye on.