Nudging 90
With the thickening of the high cloudiness yielding a dimmer sunshine yesterday afternoon, the temperature failed to reach 86 so today will be the warmest day in much of the area since July 24. It should max out near 88 away from the ocean with afternoon temperatures closer to or just under 80 at all of the beaches due to a 6-12 mph breeze in from the ocean out of mainly the east-southeast. Boston's max will likely remain under 85 so, for the city, tomorrow will feature the highest temperature since July 24 when it was 88. Many areas away from especially south-facing beaches will nudge 90 tomorrow and that will be the first time this month. August, on average, sports 3 days at 90 or higher. Last August, the Boston area had 2 of those days. It now appears that a heat wave is less likely because most places will not satisfy the criteria for 3 consecutive days that hot this week. The temperatures on Thursday may be squelched a bit via more cloudiness arriving more quickly from an upper level disturbance moving in from the Ohio Valley. It will be tracking into the region ahead of an approaching cold front and a perturbation aloft swinging in from the Great Lakes and NY. Consequently, some scattered showers and storms cannot be ruled out during Thursday with a couple more showers Thursday night from the cold front.
Sunshine will be bright and unlimited this morning but a narrow band or 2 of clouds will sweep over northern New England later this morning and afternoon and some of those clouds could drape across parts of MA. It should be all cleared up in time for the Full Sturgeon Moon that will rise at 7:40 this evening. It will provide plentiful moonshine through the night as a pleasant summer evening in the 70s transitions into late night temperatures bottoming out near 70 in Boston and 58-64 elsewhere when some of the usual valley areas have fog forming. The humidity will remain low today then gradually creep into the moderate zone tomorrow afternoon with a jump into the high category on Thursday. Drier air will return Friday via a brisk north-northwesterly breeze as it warms up to the lower 80s via sunshine and some patchy clouds. A zone of high pressure will be building toward and south of the area over the weekend. We'll enjoy pleasantly cool nights in the 50s and delightful days in the range of 76-80. The sky will be partly cloudy at times this weekend followed by increasing cloudiness Monday afternoon. A wave of low pressure shifting from the Great Lakes to New England will crank out some showers and storms here next Tuesday.
On this date in 1955, Hurricane Diane was winding down and ending after producing torrential flooding rains. Check out this link for interesting details. Thankfully, there is no action in the tropics today and no tropical cyclone development is expected for several days.
Of interest: 22" of rain fell in Manila, Philippines over the last couple of days! Barrow, AK had some snow mixed with rain yesterday and it is 30 degrees there this morning. There are 49 large fires occurring in 11 western states in our nation. About 3.3 million acres have been destroyed already.
Todd Gutner posts his blog early this evening and I shall return early tomorrow morning.
Make it a great day!
