Rainy weekends, beautiful workdays

(Essdras M Suarez/Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff)

Saturday was a typical weekend day this spring as a couple walked with an umbrella through a cold drizzle on Church Street in Cambridge. Weather has been nicer during the workweek as illustrated by Heidi DiLisio, who relaxed on a bench at Fisherman's Beach in Swampscott on Thursday, April 10, when the temperature hit 76 degrees.

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

Dawn broke this morning without a cloud sullying the sparkling blue sky as the sun warmed commuters trudging back to their jobs at the start of another workweek.

The glorious spring weather for the morning drive was like a cruel taunt after a gloomy, overcast weekend that saw rain both Saturday and Sunday. That has been the dominant meteorological pattern so far this season: 85 degrees and sunny on a Wednesday, 50-degree drizzle on the weekend.

Since the calendar start of spring, there has been at least a trace of rain or snow on nine of the 14 weekend days. Twelve of the 14 Saturdays and Sundays have been partly cloudy or completely overcast. (One of the clear days -- Sunday, March 30 -- recorded temperatures 9 degrees below average, with a high of 41 degrees and blustery winds gusting up to 22 miles per hour.)

Overall 10 of the 14 weekend days have had below average temperatures. The trend is expected to continue: warm and clear Monday and Tuesday with an increasing chance of rain as the weekend approaches.

"There's a chance of rain on Saturday," said Alan Dunham, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton. "Not on Sunday. Sunday looks nice, but I can't promise anything because it’s a long way off."

Asked about the string of lousy weekends, Dunham used a classic meteorologist truism as his defense.

"I'm in sales, not production," Dunham said. "I don't take credit for good weather, and I can't be blamed for the bad."

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