New England’s weather will remain dry and quiet into the start of this weekend as strong ridging continues to hold across the northeast at the upper-levels. On top of this, a rather strong and persistent area of high pressure will remain parked over New England at the surface. This combination will keep the fair and seasonable weather with cold nights going for the region.
As we’ve mentioned previously this week, the nearly stationary high pressure at the surface will keep conditions very calm, but it will also lead to a subdued warm-up for New England for the rest of this week as it keeps cooler air locked in at the surface. This high pressure will sink to the south of New England on Friday, leading to a light southerly flow. This will keep the warming trend going, but, again, it won’t get as mild as it could have been with cooler air at the surface and shallow mixing.
Below: Temperatures around 4,700 feet (850mb) above sea level (1st image) and temperatures around 2,500 feet (925mb) above sea level (2nd image) on Friday morning. You can see a cooler air mass held closer to the ground due to shallow mixing and surface high pressure: