Sounds great, right? After all, we deserve it after the last few weeks of snow and record cold. If you live across the interior, you will experience this feeling soon enough. If you're thinking about this and you live near the coastline, not so fast!
The image above explains the phenomenon as to why the New England coastline can't enjoy warm Spring days as much as inland areas. The winter is obviously filled with snowstorms and cold temperatures. As a result, Sea Surface Temperatures (or SSTs, for short) cool during the season. As Spring starts, the ocean is still quite cold from the winter. Because the land heats up faster than the ocean each day, land temperatures can become significantly warmer than ocean temperatures. Cold air sinks, while warm air rises. The cooler, sinking air eventually invades the low levels of the atmosphere and protrudes inland, resulting in a sea breeze.
Sea breezes typically occur on warm days with light winds. They can occur at almost any time of the year, however, they are most common from March until June. In order to prevent a sea breeze from occurring at the coast, one of the following conditions must be met:
1. The air mass must already be cool.
2. There must be a sustained land breeze in excess of 10-15 mph.
Note: Meteorology is not an exact science. As a result, sea breezes can occur when one of the above happens. At the same time, a warm air mass and light winds may not result in a sea breeze.
Sea breezes are can being annoying to warm weather lovers, but they are not the only weather phenomena that we have to deal with...
Yes, this actually happened. In fact, Backdoor Cold Fronts are fairly common here in New England.
Most of us are familiar with the term cold front. It is a frontal boundary that rushes out warm air and replaces it with cooler, drier air. Typically, cold fronts move from west to east. During a stretch of warm days during the Spring, a sharply cooler air mass can nudge itself down the New England coastline from Atlantic Canada. These divisions of air masses are called Backdoor Cold Fronts.
Backdoor Cold Fronts typically create drastic differences in temperature in a small area. Look at the map above, for instance. On 5/27/14 at 3 pm, the temperature in Boston was 55 degrees. At the same time, just ~85 miles to the WSW, it was 83 degrees in Springfield! There have been backdoor cold fronts that create drastic differences between two towns! For example, Shrewsbury, MA can record a temperature of 63 degrees, while Worcester, MA can record a temperature of 86 degrees at the exact same moment. While uncommon, the previous example has happened and certainly can in the near future.
Another difference: Backdoor cold fronts typically push much farther inland than sea breezes do. Generally, sea breezes bring localized areas of cooler air, while backdoor cold fronts bring widespread areas of cool air.
Both sea breezes and backdoor cold fronts are just additional examples of the wacky and extreme weather patterns that we constantly experience in New England.
MATT HOENIG - 8:47 PM
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