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Forecast Update: A Heated Race

After a fabulous Friday featuring a surprisingly huge home-opening win at Fenway Park, temperatures will surpass yesterday's 65 and max out around 71 today. Varying amounts of high cloudiness will filter the sunshine this afternoon as the Sox take on the Rays for a 4:05 game.

Check out the WBZ Weather Team 4Casts on NESN!

The west-southwesterly breeze will blow at 8-18 mph. The pollen count is high with the main allergens being oak, juniper and poplar. With a zone of high pressure building off the North Carolina coast, the clockwise flow means a southwesterly wind for us through Monday. This translates into soaring temperatures later this weekend. It will not be as cool tonight with lows in the middle 40s to lower 50s. An approaching warm frontal boundary could spark a few spotty or isolated showers or boomers tomorrow as temperatures rise well into the 70s.

Check: Current Conditions | Weather Map Center | Interactive Radar

Following the frontal passage, the core of the warm air mass will pass right over the region on Monday. This is very upsetting for many of the participants in the Boston Marathon because temperatures will climax in the upper 80s in eastern MA in the afternoon.

What a shame because it has been such a wonderful training period for the runners through the winter as they had high hopes for some terrific times on the course.

With the staggered start times for the runners, temperatures will be ramping swiftly up through the 60s into the 70s as the morning progresses with lower 80s likely by noon and middle 80s by 2pm and that is dangerously hot for running hard!

I predict 88 degrees in Copley Square and Logan Airport at 4pm! That will be Boston's new record high temperature for April 16 surpassing the 84 set in 2003. It will also be the hottest day since August 19 last summer when the max was 88.

Read: How To Recognize & Avoid Heat Stroke

The last hot Boston Marathon was on April 19, 2004 when it reached a max of 86 degrees. The hottest occurred on April 19, 1976 at 94 degrees! Fortunately, the humidity will not be extreme this year but the dew points will be rising well into the 50s to be classified as moderate.

Expect a freshening ventilating southwesterly wind to 12-25 mph and that will be a tail wind and an occasional cross component for much of the race. There will NOT be a cooling sea breeze as the runners approach Boston.

You can watch the Great Boston Marathon on WBZ-TV. Sunshine will be prevalent and hot on Monday but that wind off the water will air condition Cape Cod and the South Coast of New England with highs there in the range of 65-70.

Looking ahead, a cold frontal boundary will push into northwestern New England Monday night then slowly shift to the coastline at midday Tuesday. Presently, it appears that there will not be much support for any showers with that front as it slowly shifts just offshore by Wednesday. Previously, it was hoped that a developing perturbation would have created the outbreak of some worthwhile rains in the region later Wednesday and Thursday but the old adage that all systems fail in a drought will verify again. Most of the week will be dry so the moderate to severe drought will thrive. Meaningful showers might be here next weekend.

I will provide a fresh blog this evening and Joe Joyce returns tomorrow morning.

Have a happy and safe weekend. GOOD LUCK to everyone running in the Boston Marathon!

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