[retiree2011]

Originally Posted by Cambium

Speaking of Strawberries... Mmmm, Flowers came out 2 weeks ago and now I just realized today whats there. :-) Not bad for $5-10 bag of 10 at Walmart last year. :-)

Lucky you! You will definitely be picking strawberries by June. Nothing like a nice ripe strawberry, still warm from the sun. I have found this year that if you miss a day or two looking at a bush, tree, wildflowers, etc., they just pop out while you aren't looking. I was looking for skunk cabbage all of March and didn't see any near the wetlands in my area. I missed a couple of days, getting ready to go on a trip, went away for a week, then on my first walk when I got back dozens of huge skunk cabbage plants covering the banks of the stream. So try to look every day. Good luck!

[Cambium]

Originally Posted by nei

The U.S drought monitor just released their weekly numbers; post Northeaster. Wasn't enough to end the drought, but it's a start. .

Another way to look at is. Last week 7.35% of NorthEast was in Severe drought (mostly CT, RI, MA) now its 4.07%. Thats a 44% decrease. So basically the NorEaster almost cut in half for those in severe areas.. Not bad for a 24hr storm.

[wavehunter007]

Originally Posted by nei

The U.S drought monitor just released their weekly numbers; post Northeaster. Wasn't enough to end the drought, but it's a start. Long Island is now D1 instead of D2 and most of Massachusetts except the immediate coastal areas are no longer D2. The western third of the state is now D0, meaning abnormally dry rather than drought conditions. Oddly, considering the highest precipitation totals were in CT, southern CT is still stuck in severe drought.

It doesn't look obviously dry where I am now, if we get sporadic rain we might be ok but it will get more iffy as it gets hotter.

My soil is in much better shape today than it was all winter/early spring. While I doubt the drought is over, there should be some improvment in many areas.

My only worry is that as the ULL moves off this weekend and next week, the troughs flatten out, and the prospects for warmer weather returning to the East as the flow turns southerly once again. Warm temp, clear skies, and a strong sun will start the process back on the road again. One thing that could help is that they (NOAA) expect tropical cyclone formation to be close to the USA mainland, so this might bring more rain to the Tri-State area as we head into the deep summer:

Atlantic Hurricane Forecast: Storms Close to the Coast (http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/accuweather-2012-atlantic-hurricane-forecast/64215 - broken link)

.

[Cambium]

Daily Climate report for Hartford(left) Bridgeport (right). Once again yesterday Below normal temps. Minimum temps were 8 below normal!

[Cambium]

I'm sure you guys got the alerts on your phones. I dont remember seeing this in the last pattern we were in.

Freeze Warning in effect tonight for all Counties.

I-95 cities in Fairfield and New Haven just under a Freeze Watch.

355 AM EDT FRI APR 27 2012
* HAZARDS...HARD FREEZE.

* TEMPERATURES...DROPPING INTO THE MID 20S.

* TIMING...BETWEEN 2 AM EDT AND 8 AM EDT SATURDAY.

[wavehunter007]

According to the NWS …the trough was responsible for the few days of cooler weather this past week and for Sat/Sunday. The northwest flow brought the cooler air down from up in Canada. This has been the flow since tue:



However, by late Sunday, the flow will once again turn toward the southwest and warm air will head toward the eastern USA and East Coast. The flow will be coming out of the western Gulf of Mexico/Mexico toward the East Coast. Here is the GFS for Monday and showing the southerly flow that should take over by late this weekend:



As a result, expect highs in the upper 50’s maybe 60 F today, Sat, and Sunday (nights in the 30’s/upper 20’s far north/highlands )…then into the mid 60’s by Monday and Tuesday (nights into the mid 40’s), then as the southerly flow really gets going by midweek, we should see highs into the middle 70’s (nights in the 50’s) across the Tri-State area. I would not be surprised to see a run at near 80 F across inland New Jersey and interior southern Connecticut by this Thursday/Fri. Here is WC high temp forecast for this coming Thursday:









The normal highs for area NWS stations the first 7 days of May is in the mid/upper 60’s…so if the above forecast verifies, the first week of May should again see above normal temps across the Tri-State/Middle Atlantic region. Precip wise, from Sunday forward the pattern again looks to stay on the drier side once again. In fact, much of this coming week looks like typically nice East Coast May weather – sunny, warm and stable.

[Cambium]

After Monday I do believe we get back to normal temps again maybe even a 70 somewhere but should be dry and chilly for weekend.

Without getting into the unreliable "long range" weather, here's something interesting.
NWS Albany mentions something we discussed a while back regarding winds cooling temps down. See bolded.

A WIDESPREAD HARD FREEZE IS EXPECTED ACROSS THE ENTIRE AREA TONIGHT INTO SATURDAY MORNING...AND THUS A FREEZE WARNING HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR ALL ZONES WHERE THE GROWING SEASON IS UNDER WAY. WHAT WILL NOT BE TYPICAL FOR THIS TIME OF YEAR IS THAT USUALLY WHEN TEMPS DROP INTO THE 20S IN LATE APRIL IT IS DUE TO RADIATIONAL COOLING...BUT TONIGHT THERE WILL BE A PERSISTENT BREEZE SO WHAT WILL BE EXPERIENCING IS ADVECTIVE SUB-FREEZING TEMPS.

SATURDAY WILL BE BREEZY...BUT NOT AS WINDY AS FRIDAY DUE TO A WEAKER PRESSURE GRADIENT. AFTER A COLD START TO THE DAY...TEMPS WILL WARM REASONABLY WELL DUE TO STRONG LATE APRIL SUN ANGLE BUT WILL STILL END UP AROUND 5-10 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL
National Weather Service Text Product Display

[7 Wishes]

One model even showed sub-freezing lows in Central Park tonight, but I find that hard to believe as that would be quite a record low (it was 31 in 1919 and 1874, but that's a long time ago (1874 was the coldest ever April at 41.1-deg, that's 14 DEGREES lower than this month's average), if this were one day earlier there might be a shot as today's record low at CPK is 36 in 1932......NWS is saying a low of 37 but I don't think will be close to that by or before midnight).

As for Saturday, I keep hearing clouding up with small but noteable chance of rain late in the day.....

[ilovemycomputer90]

Originally Posted by Cambium

After Monday I do believe we get back to normal temps again maybe even a 70 somewhere but should be dry and chilly for weekend.

Without getting into the unreliable "long range" weather, here's something interesting.
NWS Albany mentions something we discussed a while back regarding winds cooling temps down. See bolded.

A WIDESPREAD HARD FREEZE IS EXPECTED ACROSS THE ENTIRE AREA TONIGHT INTO SATURDAY MORNING...AND THUS A FREEZE WARNING HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR ALL ZONES WHERE THE GROWING SEASON IS UNDER WAY. WHAT WILL NOT BE TYPICAL FOR THIS TIME OF YEAR IS THAT USUALLY WHEN TEMPS DROP INTO THE 20S IN LATE APRIL IT IS DUE TO RADIATIONAL COOLING...BUT TONIGHT THERE WILL BE A PERSISTENT BREEZE SO WHAT WILL BE EXPERIENCING IS ADVECTIVE SUB-FREEZING TEMPS.

SATURDAY WILL BE BREEZY...BUT NOT AS WINDY AS FRIDAY DUE TO A WEAKER PRESSURE GRADIENT. AFTER A COLD START TO THE DAY...TEMPS WILL WARM REASONABLY WELL DUE TO STRONG LATE APRIL SUN ANGLE BUT WILL STILL END UP AROUND 5-10 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL
National Weather Service Text Product Display

Very interesting. I thought about the effect the winds would have a low temperatures. My thinking is that lows would be a few degrees above the forecast, but maybe not this time. Low forecasted here is 28 F.

NYC is expected to get down to 37 F.

[nei]

Originally Posted by ilovemycomputer90

Very interesting. I thought about the effect the winds would have a low temperatures. My thinking is that lows would be a few degrees above the forecast, but maybe not this time. Low forecasted here is 28 F.

NYC is expected to get down to 37 F.

Yes, it's impressively cold for a windy day; it must be a strong influx of air from up in Canada.