Boston

Seasonable First Day of Spring; Cold Front Approaching

Meteorologically-speaking, we have been in springtime since March 1.

At 6:29 this morning we have the sun directly over the equator. It's called the Vernal Equinox, the celestial first day of spring. But it can be a little bit confusing.

First, we do not have equal day and night today, the sunrise in Boston 6:47 a.m. and sunset 6:56 p.m. gives us the length of day of 12 hours and 9 minutes. The reason for this has to do with the geometry of the earth, called oblate spheroid. That means it's a little bit wider at the equator then at the poles. Also there are wobbles in the orbit so the length of day does not exactly match up with the myth of equal day and night for everywhere on earth at equinox.

Another confusing part of this is that in meteorological and climatological record keeping winter is December, January and February. So meteorologically-speaking, we have been in springtime since March 1.

And it has been a very cold and snowy first couple of weeks of March.

As a matter fact the average temperature so far this month is colder than the temperature average we saw in February.

But that changes today with a good amount of sunshine we have temperatures warming back up into the 40s, about seasonable for March 20.

With partly cloudy overnight tonight the temperature back down to the 30s, with a slight chance of a shower.

We have a couple of fronts coming in from Canada. One comes by tonight/early tomorrow. The next one crosses later tomorrow and tomorrow night. So with a mix of sun and clouds tomorrow we should get back into the 40s with a slight chance for a shower.

The front tomorrow night means business, with a few snow showers north and a chance of a snow shower or rain shower south, then very cold and windy weather comes in for Wednesday. There may be scattered flurries around, but for the most part it's a bright and brisk day with a high temperature in the 20s to low 30s. Wind will be from the northwest gusting past 35 mph. Under mostly clear skies Wednesday night we may challenge record low temperatures in the single numbers and teens. Thursday looks sunny and cold with a high temperature in the 20s north and 30s south.

A warm front approach is on Friday with increasing clouds and a chance for a few showers in the afternoon.

The weekend is very challenging as a new batch of cold air moves into southeastern Canada and near record warm pushes toward us from the southwest.

The net result will be clouds and rain showers on Saturday with temperatures near 60° in southern New England. On Sunday colder air starts to come in, and if there's enough moisture around we may see rain changing to snow in northern New England. If the precipitation sticks around it may be cold enough for rain or snow in southern New England by late Sunday into next Monday. Plenty of action as we head into celestial spring time. 

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