Miguel Pierre

Midday Zones Update: Cool Weather Through Friday, Weekend Coastal Storm Threat Increases

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Happy Tuesday afternoon! Some sunshine will continue for rest of today. But we will continue be under the influence of a large, anomalous cold upper-level low or trough over the Northeast US. This will lead to more cumulus clouds developing, instability increases with more daytime heating.  A few isolated showers could also pop up, but these will be over more Connecticut or New England today. Temperatures will rise in the upper 50s to lower 60s.

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John Homenuk

Impressive blocking will lead to cool, stormy pattern in Northeast

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High latitude blocking is a term most often referred to in winter. The reasons for this are multi-faceted; its presence often leads to snowy and cold patterns during the Winter months, and dreary, wet patterns in the Spring months. Meteorologically, the latter is a far less popular outcome. However, popularity put aside, impressive high latitude blocking events can occur in any season. And when they do, their presence most often disrupts the pattern throughout the entire hemisphere.

This week’s high latitude blocking event will be no different. Ridging will build from Greenland westward into parts of Eastern and then Central Canada (an extremely negative NAO index, for those keeping score), remaining highly anomalous as it does so. In fact, the standard deviation from normal in the atmosphere’s mid levels makes this block one of the most anomalously impressive features on the globe at this time.

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Doug Simonian

PM Zones: Warmth on Hiatus

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Good afternoon! We continue to have chilly weather with a mix of sun and clouds, thanks to a large blocking pattern forcing an upper-level low to linger over the area. The upper-level low has a very chilly airmass underneath it, particularly from 850mb and above. In fact, this chilly airmass led to snow in Norfolk, CT this morning! Generally, highs only held in the upper 50s across the area, and it actually could’ve been worse had it not been for downsloping NW flow and deep mixing in the atmosphere. But the NW flow and mixing makes the surface warmer, which increases the difference between the surface temperatures and the very chilly airmass aloft, which increases atmospheric instability, and leads to an increase in clouds — thus the frequent periods of cloud-cover today. These clouds also contained a few isolated showers, but the downsloping component kept these a bit more infrequent than days past.

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Miguel Pierre

5/8 AM Zones Update: Cool Weather Week, Potential Weekend Coastal Storm

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Happy Monday! It’s been chilly with some sunshine has been this morning. But an large, anomalous cold upper-level low continues to linger over the northeast today. This will cause the atmosphere to become more unstable, with more daytime heating. So more clouds will likely increase again this afternoon, with some isolated or widely scattered showers around. These should be mostly on light side however, with very limited lift and moisture overall. Temperatures will be cooler than normal today with highs in mid-upper 50s to around 60 in most spots.

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