Near Record Heat In Northeast Today

Daffodil shoots emerging much earlier than usual
in my yard in St. Albans, Vermont, up in the northwest
corner of the state. A

On Tuesday, NOAA confirmed what we already knew: New England officially had its warmest winter on record.

I guess Mother Nature is celebrating that announcement by embracing the Northeast with near record high temperatures today.

The warmth had been forecast for days, but that doesn't diminish the fact that it's going to be almost summer like in a few places.

Washington DC expects a high temperature today of 80. New York City will be around 74, Boston, 72 or so.

Up in Vermont, the heat will be tempered a bit by clouds and sbowers, expecially as you go close to the Canadian border. Bennington in the southwest could flirt with 70. Burlington is expected highs in the lower 60s, probably just missing the record high for the date of 66 degrees, but you never know.

Way up at the Canadian border, it'll probably be "only" in the upper 50s, which is still at little more than 20 degrees warmer than average for this time of year.

Tuesday only hinted at the warmth that would come today, but it was certainly welcome. I was able to start getting early spring garden chores done as sunshine emerged amid light winds and temperatures near 50.

I was down to a t-shirt and felt compelled to put on sunscreen for the first time this spring as I went about my work in the yard. The dogs ventured out onto the deck to enjoy the spring sunshine, too. Usually at this time of year, it's too snowy, cold and miserable to do such a thing.

A cold front will slowly sag southward through New England Thursday, and we're still expecting a pretty soaking rain in most of the region. Definitely not enough, though to cause any real flooding, like what's going on now in Louisiana and surrounding states.

That New England cold front doesn't exactly signal a return to winter. It's possible a few areas in the north could mix with or change to snow Thursday night, especially in the high elevations, but it won't amount to much.

My dogs Jackson (top) and Tonks enjoy the springlike
sunshine on our deck in St. Albans, Vermont Tuesday.  

The foreast for Friday and beyond is a warm, but a little iffy on clouds and rain chances because it's unclear how that storm in the South will behave..

We're not sure  when and how and even if it will throw moisture back north into New England over the weekend and beyond.

Right now it looks like the weekend will be pretty much dry and warm, with the rain probably, but not definitely holding off until Monday.

The only sure part of the forecast for this weekend is warmer than normal weather will continue.  Spring seems to be off to an early start.

This is a sure contrast to last March, which was much colder than normal.

That NOAA report on the winter, by the way, says the Lower 48 as a whole had its warmest winter on record, though most individual states did not have their warmest winter, only close. However, each of the six New England states indeed had their warmest winter on record.