The crack of the bat. The sound of the crowd cheering. The booming voice of the umpire “You’re out”. The smell of hot dogs, popcorn and beer. Excited children scrambling for foul balls. The home opener for the New Britain Bees is 102 days away which feels unattainable right now. Frigid temperatures and yesterdays snow event has created a long dark cold shadow, but as each new day unfolds the sun angle gets higher and creates hope for a new season. We still need to get through the coldest core of winter the next four weeks but by then spring will hopefully be in sight. This week will start off bitterly cold with temperatures near zero tomorrow morning but how about the 50’s by Friday. Can you say January thaw?
(Picture above was from a New Britain Bees game last September). Can you feel it?

After today’s surprise Nor’Easter there was a lot of fluff value with our snowfall. Very dry and cold conditions squeezed out a lot of moisture from the frozen hexagon crystal. The rule of thumb is that for very 10-12 inches of snow equals about 1 inch of water content. Today’s 6 inch snowfall would normally be about 1/2 inch of rain but with low dew points, humidity and temperatures we had only about 3/10th of inch of liquid. This very dry fluffy snow will make shoveling unusually easily.
Our friends Luna and Isobar will have no trouble clearing out your driveway, and may save your newspaper from the snowblower too.

At 4:31pm the sun gracefully dipped behind the hills in western New Britain, Plainville and Southington. A peaceful and tranquil sight as our great orb said goodnight on the first day of 2017. Hopefully this will be a positive sign that our new year is getting off to a good start. We have already gained 12 minutes of true sunlight in the afternoon as the days stretch out further heading toward the summer months. The days continue to get longer now, but the temperatures will continue to get colder through the end of January, then a slow migration as we enter February.

A fast moving Alberta Clipper will be moving through Northern England late this evening with a chance of a few hours a snow. The heaviest snow will be across central and northern New England with southern New England getting a just a light covering. Rain will be along the coast. So be careful driving when out and about this evening.
Happy New Year to All!

A couple of winters ago the phrase “Polar Vortex” was used excessively as cold arctic air poured down into New England for a good part of winter. The conversation I heard frequently was what’s a Polar Vortex.

To all friends and family we wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
Watch for a new addition to WeatherEast “Isobar”. 2 friends, Isobar and Luna will be showing what’s going on todays weather world.

After experiencing several days with temperature in the 50’s and 60’s reality will finally shake things up here in New England. Northern New England has had little or no natural snow to date and Southern New England had one skirmish last week that affected mostly southern areas of Connecticut. New computer models are coming to an agreement that wintertime will finally fill back in here next week with a coastal storm that may bring significant snow followed by a shot of the coldest air of the season.                                 My snowblower is in for repairs right now, go figure.

(WxToons by CMiano) After coming off the warmest December to date, January follows up with temperatures 4.5 degrees above normal. Officially Connecticut has had only 3.5 inches of recorded snowfall to date (At Bradley International Airport). The average to date should be close to 30 inches. So what’s the culprit for such a mild, snowless winter? Greenhouse gases surrounded the globe? Or just climate cycles we encounter every several years. I would say it’s a combination of both. 2015 has been the warmest year ever recorded on the earth as the industrial countries continue release carbon gases into our atmosphere creating a greenhouse effect causing warming conditions in all corners of the globe. Also locally in the states a very strong El Nino wave arrived from the Pacific Ocean not allowing the traditional arctic cold fronts from sinking down from Canada and above. But there’s still time that we may get a decent snowstorm or two. Stay tuned.

With new data coming in daily it appears that this stretch of very cold conditions may last for another two weeks which will bring us to the end of the month and may smash all records as being the coldest February ever. As of today we are averaging some 9 degrees below normal for the month. Very intense arctic outbreaks are plunging directly at us from the polar region instead of descending into the upper Midwestern states and making that left turn towards us where the cold air has a chance to moderate. We may feel the core of the cold by the end of this week when temperatures will be 5-15 below zero in the morning and a high struggling to get to 10 degrees. A deep snowpack will enhance the bite of the cold considerably. But keep in mind, these chilling bubbles of dense air masses will soon retreat north as the sun angle gets higher in the sky. Here’ s a warming thought…. Daylight Savings Time begins four weeks from today!

Click on Central Connecticut Live Weather to the right for Real Time local conditions.

The conveyer belt just keeps rolling along delivering on cue winter storms every three days. We know that there is a life span for these storms and will eventually give out as the sun migrates higher in the sky each day sending a message to the arctic air masses to finally retreat. After yesterday’s twelve inch snow blitz, another Alberta Clipper will travel southeastward from Canada early Thursday and cover our landscape with another one to four inches of snow. And yet another system will pull out the Rockies and take up shop off the east coast by late weekend. Computers models are now starting to agree on where and when this newest storm will blossom into Nor’easter on Sunday. Nor’easter + Arctic air mass = significant snowfall for New England. Winter is surely making up for lost time in a hurry this winter.

Click on Central Connecticut Live Weather to the right for Real Time local conditions.