Mild Monday followed by a brief return to winter-like chill

A brief cold-snap of sorts will arrive for the middle of the week with highs only in the lower and middle 40s. Nighttime lows are going to fall in the 20s and this could end up being the last of the winter-feeling air for the season. The pattern that has been locked in place for the past 8 weeks is showing signs of relaxing and a new and milder pattern is going to take hold beginning later this week and into the weekend.

Several of the global indices that have an impact on our weather are about to change phase. The Arctic oscillation,(AO) which has been negative for much of the winter, is starting to lean positive and the north Atlantic oscillation or NAO, which has been negative much of the winter, is trending neutral. With both of these patterns undergoing a significant change, so too will our daily weather.

Average temperatures this time of year are in the lower 50s. However, this is somewhat meaningless since averages are just a compilation of the year to year fluctuations. Here in New England early April can be very chilly or quite warm. For today, the record high is a summer-like 76 and the record low is a mid-winter like 13F. The range of temperature this time of year is tremendous. Imagine having a 63 degree range in the summer. That would mean record highs in the mid 90s and record lows in the 30s! In summer we find most days with a 35 or 40 degree range between the record high and record low.
The temperature has never dropped below 60F in Boston during July.

Towards the second part of the week temperatures will once again recover with highs again in the 50s. Abundant sunshine will give a great opportunity to spend some time in the yard after work. Sunset is now after 7PM and we are gaining just shy of 3 minutes of light each day. By the weekend, you will have another 15 minutes of daylight and the light will last a full 13 hours.

This weekend marks the 31st anniversary of one of the biggest April snowstorms on record. Back in 1982, a foot or more of snow fell across much of New England. As I look ahead to the next couple of weeks, it doesn’t look likely that we are going to see any more snow.

I'll be updating gardening tips and weather information on Twitter at @growingwisdom please follow me there. Feel free to comment or ask questions too.
Gardening this week
Many of you have ornamemental grasses in your yard. These grasses are quite beautiful in the summer and fall, look horrible this time of the year. There are a few things you can do right now to help get those grasses looking good early in the season.