Major temperature change, the “Fujiwhara effect” and a supermoon in the forecast for Massachusetts

BOSTON – The biggest weather forecast of the week still remains the drought. It will be a much cooler week overall than what we have experienced so far in November, but unfortunately there is still no significant rainfall in sight.

Drought conditions in Massachusetts

Some rain finally fell on Sunday evening, but it wasn’t much. About a tenth of an inch for most, literally a drop in the ocean.

Add to that the rain over the past 24 hours and there remains no change in the status of Boston or Worcester on the record list for driest fall seasons. Boston remains No. 2 and Worcester No. 1.

The outlook for the next seven days is more of the same.

We’ll probably see red flag warnings Posted again on Tuesday, as we expect very gusty winds and extremely dry air.

The next chance of rain comes later this week, but it is far from certain and doesn’t look like anything noticeable.

Weather forecast for Boston

The biggest change this week will be in temperatures. A cold front will move through Monday night, ushering in a much colder air mass.

Highs over the next few days will be in the upper 40s and low 50s, which is slightly below average for this time of year.

Winds will be between 20 and 40 miles per hour on Tuesday, making temperatures more like the 30s.

The Fujiwhara effect

It’s never too early to start looking ahead to next weekend.

This is actually a rather difficult prediction. There will be two low pressure areas off the East Coast on Friday: one around Nova Scotia and the other near the Carolinas.

These two storms will revolve around each other, something we know the “Fujiwhara effect.”

The storm near Nova Scotia will actually retrograde westward and retreat into northern New England this weekend. Whether we can squeeze any precipitation out of it in southern New England remains to be seen. Much of the stormy weather could move north.

Tropical activity

Hurricane Rafael is long gone and currently there are no active storms in the Atlantic Ocean.

We’re monitoring an area near the Yucatan for possible development later this week. In some models, this feature is actually developing into a longer-term tropical system and moving toward Florida, but that’s still a ways away.

Beaver supermoon in November and chance of Northern Lights

The sun remains very activeand experts say there is a 30% chance of an X-class eruption in the coming days. If that were to happen, we could be looking for more auroras this week.

A very weak meteor shower will take place in the northern Taurids on Monday evening. It’s actually not even worth mentioning, but there’s a chance you might see a shooting star at night. This weekend the Leonids meteor shower will be monitored. This shower has been known to be decent over the years, but with a full moon lighting up the sky it can be difficult to see much.

Watch the southwestern sky after sunset this week and you will see Venus (shining very brightly) along with Mercury (much less bright).

Last but certainly not least: the fourth and final supermoon of 2024 arrives this week.

The “beaver” moon will be full at 4:29 PM on Friday, and given its proximity to Earth in its orbit, it will also be a supermoon. This means it appears slightly larger and brighter than an average full moon.