May 31 New Records?
The last day the temperature reached 90 degrees was on August 31. There haven't been many hot days so far this season but on this last day of May, some records will be broken such as Boston's 96, Providence's 95 and Worcester's 92. With a warming air mass maxing out over the Northeast this afternoon and early evening, the projected temperatures aloft are supportive of reaching these established records that were all set in 1944. The key is the absolute wind direction in Boston and Providence. A west-southwesterly breeze will seal the deal and at least tie the records. More of a straight southwesterly wind will kill the chance at Providence and lower the chance in Boston thanks to a slight marine influence. As I compose this blog, it is already 79 at Logan Airport at 8am so my feeling is that there is a much greater than 50-50 shot that the official Boston temperature will at least tie the record of 96 and perhaps break it at 97 degrees! Interestingly, Boston's highest temperature last summer was 97 degrees occurring on June 20 and July 17. While many WBZ WeatherBug Network stations reached 90 to 91, yesterday morning's projection of a 90 or 91 failed to verify for Boston with the max coming up short at 88. As a result, since Sunday's max will not likely exceed 88, this hot spell will not be classified as a bona fide heat wave in the city because there must be 3 consecutive days at 90 or higher to qualify. If you want to find some relief, seek south-facing coastal locations today through the weekend. In those areas specifically on Cape Cod especially at south-facing beaches, outer Cape Ann and the ME coast, three will be natural air conditioning to the tune of 10 up to 20 degrees. The greatest cooling will occur closer to Chatham, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard plus Gloucester/Rockport and the ME coast downeast of Portland. High tides occur around 5am/5:30pm today and about 50-60 minutes later each day through the weekend. The wind will become gustier and back to a more south-southwesterly direction on Sunday. The day will likely start out with much low cloudiness and fog over at least southeastern MA and Cape Cod. This should burn off to haze but the wind will definitely keep it cooler there.
The Bermuda high pressure heat pumper is propelling the core of this hot air mass over the region this afternoon so the heat will peak today and gradually wane over the weekend as we watch the approach of cooler air from the center of the nation. The boundary associated with the push of this more refreshing air will be triggering a swath of severe weather from Oklahoma City to Chicago. This axis of action will be shifting eastward through the weekend and the leading edge of its storms will be arriving in northwestern New England Sunday afternoon. While there is a slight risk of a few spotty boomers north and west of Boston later Sunday afternoon, the boom lowers mainly Sunday night through much of Monday as the frontal boundary slowly migrates eastward. Consequently, expect a soggy start to the work week with some areas of heavy rain causing flooding in poor drainage locations. With the clouds and wet weather, it will definitely be cooler in the 70s. The trailing edge of the showery zone will exit southeastern MA Monday night and Tuesday should dawn mostly clear and much cooler and drier. A benevolent high pressure system will build in from the Great Lakes to sponsor delightfully dry weather through Friday of next week. Daytime highs on those 4 days will be in the middle 70s except 60s along the coast when the sea breezes develop and overnight lows will be in the upper 40s to middle 50s.
Please note that the DEP has issued an air quality alert for elevated levels of ground ozone. People who are unusually sensitive to ozone or particle pollution may experience respiratory symptoms.
Todd Gutner posts his blog early this evening and Joe Joyce will be here tomorrow and Sunday. You can meet Joe and see the WBZ Mobile AccuWeather Lab at the Open House of Blue Hill Observatory in Milton from 10am-4pm tomorrow.
Have a happy and safe weekend.
