Weather

An early taste of spring will kick off this final week of February

Temperatures to soar into the 50s, gusty rainstorm to cut across New England Wednesday into Thursday.

By David Epstein

February 27, 2024

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Temperatures started Sunday in the teens across most of the area and there’s a distinct possibility that ends up being the coldest morning of the rest of the winter. Obviously, I can’t with certainty predict an entire month of weather, but there’s no significant cold on the horizon. Actually it’s just the opposite: I see several opportunities for spring weather ahead as we end one of the warmest meteorological winters on record.

As everybody who took last week off goes back to work and school, a warming trend is on the way, but it isn’t going to be dry the whole time. With temperatures getting into the 50s Monday and Tuesday and pushing 60 degrees midweek, it’s going to feel a little bit like early spring. These readings are a full month ahead of schedule, but crocuses and snowdrops have been up for weeks, so it’s just more of the same.

It’s not just here in the Northeast where it’s warm either. The warmth stretches west and south and peaks in Texas.

Across parts of that state, near record temperatures are going to propel the mercury towards the 90-degree mark Monday.

There, the atmosphere looks to be about as warm as it can possibly get for late February into early March.

Back at home, we have a rainstorm to contend with on Wednesday. Right now, it looks like low pressure will move from the Great Lakes and cut across New England. Along this path, the storm will maintain its strength and bring with it a possibility of strong wind, especially along Cape Cod and the Islands.

The ground is still adequately moist from all of the wet weather we have had this winter. For those of you who tend to get basement flooding in the spring, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to check your sump pumps or other means that you use to handle excess water. Wednesday’s rain event is nothing remarkable, simply another storm with the possibility for some heavy rain — about an inch south of Boston and the Mass Pike — that could create some flooding.

Behind this weather system, temperatures briefly return to more seasonable readings, although still above average overall. We may actually be back near 50 degrees by Saturday.

Meteorological winter comes to an end on Thursday and even though we have an extra day of winter this year (due to the leap year), we certainly have had very little winter weather. If our snow total, which is just under 10 inches in Boston, holds into the spring, it will be the first time we have had back-to-back winters with so little snowfall.

It’s tempting to make a conclusion about the lack of snow these past couple of winters and climate change. More research will need to be done, however the odds of these types of winters occurring are going to increase over the coming decades.