Thursday, 4:30 PM
Official: Marathon weather reports 'moving in the right direction'
Bay State residents can bask in a sunny spring day right now, but a storm is expected to move in this weekend with high winds and buckets of rain -- and maybe even some sleet and snow.
For Monday, the day of the 111th running of the Boston Marathon, the National Weather Service forecast calls for a high temperature of 44 degrees; periods of rain, with downpours at times; and a wind from the east that will blow right in the runners' faces.
Peter Judge, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, which has been preparing for the storm, said the forecasts for Marathon Monday are improving.
He said the latest indications are that the storm will move in earlier than previously predicted -- perhaps overnight tonight -- and taper off earlier.
"It's moving in the right direction, as far as improving conditions," he said.
By race time Monday, he said, officials are expecting that the "driving rain and gusting winds will be over. ... It'll be rainy and cold and windy, but less so."
Authorities have been scrambling to mitigate the potential misery of 23,000 runners on a miserable damp day.
The marathon has been run under some awful conditions in the past. Take the 1976 race when temperatures during the first half of the race reportedly reached 94 degrees; or the 1961 race when snow squalls were driven by strong winds.
