Staying The Course: More Mild Temps
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Now that was one sweet start to November! There really aren't many redeeming qualities about November except for Thanksgiving, at least in my mind. It's dark. The leaves go away. It's not really the holidays yet, no matter how many Christmas decorations get slammed down your throat the day after Halloween. So the only way it turns out to be interesting is if we get some nice mild air to linger. Jackpot! This week featured 3 (or 4, depending on your town) days in the 70s and some record highs around the region on Friday. Not too shabby. While we're cooling off a bit from that incredible warmth, the general trend of mild air is holding on for a while yet.
Warm? You bet! Warmest? Not quite. While we've had 3 days top 70º so far this month, it's not close to the record number of 70s in a November, and there are no more in the forecast.
Funny to think that our temps will be 10 degrees cooler Saturday and still be way up above average. Our actual highs, for most towns, will actually be set at midnight (before the cooler air arrives). We'll end up around 67F in Boston, which is 12º above average for the date. After cooling into the 50s by daybreak, we'll rebound just a touch during the day itself. Highs will reach the low 60s for most, with mid/upper 50s for the higher terrain of central Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. The more noticeable thing may be the falling humidity. Dew points will drop into the 30s and 40s by Saturday morning, getting rid of the odd muggy feel of Friday. It's not a clean sweep behind this front - some more moisture will ride up along the East Coast on Saturday and provide intervals of clouds to mix in with the sun.
These are daytime high temps on Saturday, although actual highs (in the record books) will likely be set at midnight.
Sunday's highs will be 25 degrees cooler than Friday, and STILL will just barely make it back to average for this time of year. It's looking like low 50s, and Boston's average high at that time is 54F. Depending on what we get for a low temp, even this crisp and cool day could fail to go below average - and it's our only shot in the longer range. After a chilly Sunday night where most inland areas will go subfreezing, we'll start the process of warming right back up for next week. A ridge of high pressure will build back across the eastern U.S. and the rebound will get underway. This one doesn't look as dramatic as the first week of November. There looks to be a little more of an onshore component to the wind, and the air aloft doesn't look as warm as what we just experienced. But even still, upper 50s to mid 60s every day next week is all above the norm. So we may go through the whole first 15 days of the month without registering a day of below average temps. That's in stark contrast to last year, where it snowed several times in November and it was quite colder than usual.
Next week GEFS showing above average temperatures again in the eastern U.S. with more chill and unsettled weather in the west. Source: Weatherbell
So it may be no-shave November, but it's not no-mow November. The grass will probably keep growing for a couple weeks yet, with the final cut a little before Thanksgiving. There are some signs that colder air will start pouring down into the U.S. by the middle of the month, but the brunt of it may be to our west toward the Plains and Midwestern states. It should at least start feeling more like the calendar indicates and should add a chill just in time for that holiday spirit to kick in.
