[Cambium]

Perfect Spring day! Clear skies, Gentle breeze, Warm in the sun, cool in the shade when wind blows.

Temps in the 60s. Winds generally from the North, NorthEast.

There's a 1036 High Pressure in Canada north of Great Lakes sending that North wind down but because there's a Ridge building in the East, it's allowing some warm temps from the south to move in. Battle between cool Surface winds and 15,000 foot flow.

Friday will be warmest day of week I think

[wavehunter007]

From what I can tell by NWS obs....Bridgeport, New Haven, and Groton/NK were the warmest reporting stations in Connecticut....they all hit 69 F. I don't know if any NWS station in Connecticut touched 70 F or higher.

According NWS...Friday could again get near (or maybe over) 70 F based on their forecast.

[Cambium]

Looks like rain moves in after 7pm Friday and clears out by Lunch time Saturday. So second half of Saturday looks dry and Sunday looks great. But maybe chilly for some. Highs in the 50s and here's what Upton says for Saturday night.

AS THE HIGH SETTLES OVERHEAD SAT NIGHT NORTHERLY WINDS WILL BECOME
LIGHT... AND WITH CLEAR SKIES CAN EXPECT STRONG RADIATIONAL COOLING
CONDITIONS. LOWS WILL FALL TO 40 IN MIDTOWN NYC...INTO THE 30S MOST
ELSEWHERE...AND INTO THE UPPER 20S IN THE INTERIOR VALLEYS WELL
NORTH/WEST OF NYC. GROWING SEASON WILL HAVE BEGUN IN NYC
METRO, LONG ISLAND AND COASTAL CT SO FROST ADVISORIES MAY EVENTUALLY
NEED TO BE POSTED FOR LATE SAT NIGHT ACROSS MOST OF THIS AREA IF
CURRENT TEMP FORECAST HOLDS.

[wavehunter007]

Friday really looks to be the warmest day this weekend. I think most areas in the Tri-State get to 65 to 70 F. However, with the stronger southerly flow, areas that get more sunshine, could get into the lower 70's:

Here's WC map for Friday:






Weekend looks nice with sunny skies and temps 55 to 60 F for most areas. So we really seem to be in a pattern of nice weather now.

[Cambium]

Seems like models have tammed the 70s idea in CT. Huge turn around after last week it was showing very warm for Wednesday(yesterday), then they pushed it back to Thursday (today), then they have Friday as the warmest day of the week. Now they have lowered the temps for even Friday. LOL. Notice the trend? Fronts are slower to come in and Canadien Highs are keeping temps seasonable.

Seasonable for now.. models only picking up on it in the short term.

Even on the WC map above you can see CT stuck in the 60s. Enjoy what "spring" should really be around here. Not 70s/80s like we used to have.

GFS for Friday afternoon. I think this is a couple degrees to cool but if clouds are around, then maybe we wont warm up as much..

[wavehunter007]

There will be a warm surge on Friday on the southerly winds….70 ‘s seem very likely in the Tri-State (models have cold bias). However, 70 F is 10 above normal for many NWS area stations, our normal highs are still warm (60’s F ) but not that warm – yet.

No doubt the warming that is taking place has do with the warming spring pattern. The log warm season is here, can’t do much about nature.

For Friday….mid 70 and a sultury feel to the air will give us all the preview of the long hot season ahead. That old East Coast monsoon is getting ready - lol

One other note....the next 30 days (April 20 th to MAy 20th) average solar hrs increase thier fastest of the whole year (in terms of rate of increase). You can see that once you get south of New England(Boston northward)...those sun hrs in May go up WAY up on the East Coast. Late March to Mid April averages 180 solar hrs....now we'll average 220 hrs (look how much better CT/NJ hrs are than up in New England)That HOT sun will be building everyday from here on out:

[Cambium]

Heads up tomorrow if it survives all the way.

[wavehunter007]

NWS seems less impressed with any severe weather as the front slips through. IN fact they think bulk of Friday is warm and dry:




WEATHER SUMMARY FOR SOUTHEASTERN NY...NORTHEASTERN NJ AND
SOUTHERN CT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY
500 AM EDT THU APR 18 2013

HIGH PRESSURE NORTH OF THE AREA WILL MOVE EAST TO THE CANADIAN
MARITIMES TODAY. THE HIGH WILL PROVIDE FOR ANOTHER DRY DAY.
SOUTHEASTERLY WINDS DEVELOP AND WILL KEEP THE AREA A COUPLE OF
DEGREES COOLER THAN WEDNESDAY WITH HIGHS EXPECTED TO RANGE FROM THE
MID 60S INLAND TO THE UPPER 50S ALONG THE COAST.

AS THE HIGH MOVES AWAY FROM THE REGION A STATIONARY FRONT THROUGH
THE MID ATLANTIC STATES WILL MOVE NORTH AS A WARM FRONT. THIS FRONT
WILL MOVE INTO THE VICINITY THIS EVENING WITH LOW CLOUDS AND FOG
DEVELOPING. AREAS OF DRIZZLE WILL ALSO BE POSSIBLE TONIGHT. THE
FRONT MOVES THROUGH THE AREA LATE TONIGHT INTO EARLY FRIDAY. LOW
TEMPERATURES WILL LIKELY OCCUR THIS EVENING WITH LOWS IN THE LOWER
TO MID 50S. TEMPERATURES THEN HOLD STEADY OR SLOWLY RISE AS THE WARM
FRONT APPROACHES.

WITH THE FRONT NORTH OF THE AREA FRIDAY THERE WILL BE A PERIOD OF
DRY WEATHER BEFORE SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS MOVES INTO THE AREA
LATE FRIDAY AFTERNOON AHEAD OF AN APPROACHING COLD FRONT. THE COLD
FRONT MOVES THROUGH THE AREA FRIDAY NIGHT INTO EARLY SATURDAY
MORNING WITH SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS LIKELY. HIGHS FRIDAY WILL BE
IN THE MID 60S ALONG THE COAST TO THE LOWER 70S INLAND. DRIER AND
MUCH COOLER AIR MOVES IN FOR THE WEEKEND



$$

[wavehunter007]

As is typical, the cold bias of the models could stop the southerly East Coast monsoon….70’s DID make into Connecticut, and temps along the CT coast were off by almost 10 F (58 predicted – 67 F in New Haven right now – lol). 2:00 PM obs had following temps:


CITY SKY/WX TMP DP RH WIND PRES REMARKS
BRADLEY INTL PTSUNNY 72
HARTFORD CLOUDY 71
DANBURY PTSUNNY 70
WTRBRY/OXFORD CLOUDY 64
BRIDGEPORT PTSUNNY 65
MERIDEN CLOUDY 67
NEW HAVEN PTSUNNY 66
CHESTER NOT AVBL
GROTON CLOUDY 57
WILLIMANTIC CLOUDY 70


After front pulls through tonight and early on Sat....rest of weekend should be sunny and dry with highs near 60 F. Another perfect spring weekend in the Tri-State area!

[7 Wishes]

Today is the 30th anniversary of what on the CT coast is probably the latest in the year modern measurable snowfall.

It was a bigger deal to the west (4" at Newark Airport, and a lot of variation in NYC, 0.8" CPK, 1.5" JFK, just a T LGA), but .5" did fall at BDR. I found a lot of web sources mention it for NJ but not much regarding CT, so it probably wasn't a big deal east of Jersey, but thought I'd note. One thing I remember about it in Westchester (I was a teenager then) was the one big deal made about it was that it was just one year after the big 1982 early April blizzard. It was also a big flooding rain that turned to snow, I remember that.

I think for inland/northern CT, the latest in the year measurable is May 9, 1977 (just a T at BDR though, but it's also NYC's latest-in-the-year trace of snow)....1.3" at BDL and 20" in Norfolk (in Litchfield County I believe)

http://forums.accuweather.com/index.php?showtopic=29630