Cold air mass – followed by even colder one

Meteorologists give air masses specific names to represent the type of air they contain. On Monday, we experienced maritime tropical air (mT), which is warm and somewhat humid. A cold front swept that air mass out to sea and a new air mass from Canada known as continental polar air (cP) sat over the region Tuesday morning.  

Overnight a small area of low pressure passed to the south of New England and brought some light rain and snow showers to southern Maine.  Wednesday brings clearing skies as high pressure builds into the region.  Temperatures will reach the 40s and with the sunshine it will feel nice in the afternoon.

Wintery cold makes an early debut

On Friday, another air mass – this one straight from the Arctic – will push into the region.  Continental Arctic (cA) air will bring temperatures more conducive to January than early November to close out the week.

We haven’t seen any real cold air this season, so not only is this unusual in any year, it’s highly unusual this year. The loop below shows temperatures over 20 degrees below average sweeping into New England Friday.

As the arctic front sweeps through, there may be a rain or even snow shower early Friday morning as winds pick up and temperatures fall.

The high temperature Friday is likely going to be reached at midnight because by the time we get to Friday afternoon, temperatures will be hovering in the lower 30s.

On Saturday morning at sunrise, expect temperatures in the 20s with some teens showing up across the region. This is cold enough to freeze the ground, which means that those of you that have field games early Saturday can expect to be playing on very cold surfaces.

If the cold weather doesn’t get you excited about winter, perhaps a little bit of snow in the mountains will. As that front passes northern New England there could be a coating of up to an inch of snow in the highest elevations. This is nothing unusual and actually often occurs this time of the year.

Milder before Thanksgiving

After this cold snap, temperatures are likely to moderate as we get closer to Thanksgiving, but not to the extent we just saw. Indeed, we should all realize summer can’t last forever and the cool to cold weather is here for the next six months.