Enjoy It While It Lasts!
The weather has been delightful so far this week but some changes are in the making. Today's weather will be almost but not quite a duplicate of yesterday's weather. The temperatures will be similar maxing out near 80 except along the coast where beach degrees will be in the range of 73-76 thanks to the breeze blowing in from the ocean. The humidity will remain in the comfy zone but it will not be super dry like the past two days. It will not be as sunny as Monday or even yesterday as the sunshine will be periodically filtered and dimmed by varying amounts of passing high and mid-level cloudiness. The tide will be going out this afternoon after its high status at 12:30 pm. After some cooling from offshore winds earlier this week, the ocean will be warming back up a bit thanks to the onshore breeze of yesterday, today and tomorrow capturing some warmer water offshore and pushing it back to near the coastline.
As a ridge of high air pressure shifts offshore, the resulting void will be filled by approaching moist frontal boundaries. The flow of air from the south will steer higher humidity into the Northeast in tandem with a warm front which should trigger showers and boomers primarily northwest of the I-95 corridor from Providence to Boston tomorrow. The dewpoints will be ramping back into the 60s to near 70 later tomorrow after hanging out in the arid 40s yesterday. Coupled with sufficient lift along the cold boundary, more showers and boomers will be generated on Friday. For tomorrow and Friday, the potential exists for 1 up to 2 inches of rain in many areas with less in the range of a half to one inch over Cape Cod and also from near the MA/NH border northward. There will be some poor drainage flooding issues in places during this period.
Looking ahead, the cold front moves off Cape Cod early Saturday morning so the sky should become sunnier and the air much less humid from the get-go. The air mass close behind the frontal system will still be warm enough to support surface temperatures in the middle to possibly upper 80s on Saturday afternoon, lower 80s on Sunday afternoon and slightly cooler than average conditions projected for next Monday through Wednesday. Another large high pressure system will be building toward New England providing a bit cooler weather next Monday and Tuesday with highs ranging from the middle 70s at the beaches to near 80 farther north and west of the city. There should be a partly cloudy sky daily through most of next week.
Statistically, July is the hottest month of the year. On average, the highest temperatures of the year occur from July 20-25. After this sweltering July which produced 12 days at 90 or higher, the temperature has been close to average so far this month. The longer range meteorological models are delivering, for the most part, a projected weather pattern which would favor NO heat waves for the rest of this month in New England! In fact, it is quite possible that NO single days at or over 90 degrees will occur for at least the next two weeks! The average number of 90-degree days in August is 3. Last August, Boston got 2 days, specifically the 92 on the 3rd and the 90 on the 31st. In 2010, there were 7 days preceded by 3 in 2009. The last time there were no days at 90 was 5 years ago in 2008. The total number of days at 90 or higher this year is 17! There were 12 in July which is double the average total. The record number of days at 90 or higher is 30 set in 1983. More recently, 2010 had 25 days!
Joe Joyce posts his blog early this evening and I shall return early tomorrow morning.
Make it a great day!
