Weekend In New England
The weekend weather, for the most part, is shaping up to be wonderful across the region. Add to that the start of summer tomorrow and it should put a smile on many faces for sure. The summer solstice occurs precisely at 6:51 am tomorrow and ends at 10:29 pm on September 22. The average high temperature at the beginning of summer is 78 degrees. This average peaks at 83 degrees usually around July 22. Interestingly, 3 years ago on that date, Boston sizzled to 103 degrees which tied the record set in 1926. The city's highest temperature ever on record was 1 degree higher at 104 set on July 4, 1911. When summer ends, the average temperature will have declined to 70 degrees. The daylight at the beginning of summer amounts to 15 hours and 18 minutes but on the ending day, it is 3 hours and 8 minutes less at 12 hours and 10 minutes. From the beginning to the end of summer, the sunrise changes from 5:07 to 6:31 am and the sunset changes from 8:25 to 6:41 pm! UGH!
There have been no days at 90 degrees or higher in Boston this season. That is rather unusual. The average date for the first 90 degrees is June 8. Last year, it occurred on May 31. The earliest ever on record was April 7, 2010 and the latest date for the first 90 degrees at least in the past 25 years was on July 14, 1998. The forecast calls for none of these hot days into next week. There is a slight chance 0f 90 next Wednesday only if the clouds, showers and boomers are delayed in arrival. Last year at this time, there had been 2 days at 90 or higher with 3 more to occur the last week of June. After that, we got hosed with a 5-day heat wave followed by a 7-day heat wave in July creating a mean temperature for the month a whopping 3.7 degrees above the average. Our seasonal prediction is for fewer hot days in July and more in August this year than last year. Overall, the summer will be less hot than in 2013.
The air is unusually dry for June with dewpoints in the upper 30s to middle 40s across New England today. They will only rise up to the upper 40s tomorrow to near or slightly over 50 on Sunday. Now that is a hat trick of amazing low humidity for us. Meantime, the air is truly tropical from the Midwest southward and eventually, it will get muggier here the middle of next week. Expect high temperatures to reach the upper 70s today and tomorrow with 80 degrees on Sunday, 82 on Monday and 85 on Tuesday. Sea breezes may develop at some beaches tomorrow then all beaches on Sunday. The nights will be almost autumnal as they cool off to the upper 40s to upper 50s before the warmup begins next week.
For beach and boating interests, high tides occur around 7 am and 7 pm tomorrow followed by 8 am and 8 pm on Sunday. Seas will remain slight at 1-2 feet with light variable winds becoming onshore at 5-15 mph. The visibility will be great at well over 5 miles.
There is a slight snag in the weekend forecast. A disturbance in the upper levels will track southeastward from eastern Canada and will produce patches of puffy clouds which could build sufficiently to trigger a few widely scattered showers mainly across northern New England so boaters, campers, hikers and climbers beware of that slight possibility. I cannot completely rule out the risk of a couple of them straying into MA later in the afternoon. Otherwise, sunshine will rule most of the time with Sunday being the sunniest. The next real rain threat for everyone will be along about Wednesday when some showers and storms are destined to move into the region from the west.
We have a brand new CBS Boston/WBZ Weather app that just hit the iTunes store. Go to CBSBoston.com to download the "CBS Boston Weather" app.
You can watch Todd Gutner's weathercasts on WBZ News at 5, 6 and 11pm and I will follow him tomorrow morning from 5-10 am. Have a happy and safe weekend ... and a great summer!
