Active, transitional pattern this week
Despite that fact that we continue to work farther and farther away from Winter with each passing day, the pattern over the next week will feature a transitional — and colder than normal — airmass on multiple days. As we mentioned last week, the presence of high latitude blocking will be the main culprit in driving cold air southward from Canada into the Northern 1/3 of the United States. Despite a changing sun angle and nearly completely melted snowpack, the potential for cold and at least some snow is anticipated to continue for the next 7 to 10 days. This week will feature a transition from a benign pattern into a more stormy one.
After a warm and pleasant day on Monday, a frontal boundary is expected to pass the area on Tuesday with blustery winds and showers which may end as snow showers throughout the area. This will all be owing to the southward extension of a lobe of the Polar Vortex, which will be elongating and setting up shop over Southeast Canada. Very cold air — 850mb temperatures of nearly -30 C — will be bottled up just to the north of New England. And frontal boundaries will progressively seep this air southward into our area at times.