DAYS 1-5 (AUGUST 4-8)
The continuation of the fine-tuning process for the upcoming wet weather event goes on even in the final hours before it arrives. If you recall, our guidance just a few days ago was overwhelmingly in favor of rain-free weather through early Thursday and wet weather later Thursday through Friday. How’s that going to work out? Not well. And this is why I (and other mets) often caution and remind people not to trust guidance so easily beyond just a few days, because many times it will lead you very astray. Here, yet again, we have another in an endless string of examples of this. Anyway, the job now is to focus in on this event, which is now a Wednesday night into Thursday event, and will be on the heavy side for some of the region, but will spare many areas that suffered previous flooding issues. This particular set-up is not part of the same pattern that brought us our wet weather in July. This is a different pattern, drier overall, but still capable of delivering a solid wet weather event. This one will be the result of high pressure building off the US East Coast and pushing a frontal boundary westward into coastal New England during the next couple days, with a passing wave of low pressure the shower activity along that front evolves into a fairly solid area of rainfall that will move south to north through the region tonight into Thursday before exiting during the second half of Thursday. The swath of heaviest rainfall should be somewhere in the I-95 belt and eastward, but that doesn’t mean some briefly heavier rain can’t reach a bit further west than that. It just looks like the areas in southwestern NH that struggled with flooding will miss out on the heaviest, which is good, and that a good portion of still-dry Cape Cod will get in on some decent rain, which is also good, but some areas between that don’t need it end up with some flooding issues, which is not good. The good news is this will be a fairly short-lived event, a matter of hours versus several days and episodes of wet weather. As we get to later this week and the weekend, we’ll be largely rain-free with a warming trend and more humidity. A few diurnal showers and thunderstorms may pop up well inland later Saturday and a few more may develop on Sunday with the help of an approaching weak trough of low pressure, but this won’t be a return to a wet weather pattern, just more typical summertime weather.
TODAY: Filtered sunshine then clouds thicken up again from south to north. Highs 73-80, coolest coastal areas. Dew point ranging from middle 50s north central MA to middle 60s South Coast. Wind SE up to 10 MPH.
TONIGHT: Cloudy. Widespread showers arriving from south to north, heaviest I-95 corridor southeastward with a chance of embedded thunder. Flash flooding may occur in prone areas. Areas of fog forming. Lows 62-69. Dew point in 60s. Wind SE up to 10 MPH.
THURSDAY: Cloudy with numerous showers in the morning, heaviest I-95 belt southeastward, including the slight chance of thunderstorms and areas of fog. Breaking clouds with showers ending from south to north afternoon. Highs 69-76. Dew point in 60s. Wind E to SE 5-15 MPH.
THURSDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy. Areas of fog. Lows 61-68. Dew point 60s. Wind SE under 10 MPH.
FRIDAY: Partly sunny. Highs 76-83. Dew point 60s. Wind S 5-15 MPH.
FRIDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy. Patchy fog. Lows 65-72. Dew point 60s. Wind SSW up to 10 MPH.
SATURDAY: Partly cloudy. Isolated afternoon and early evening showers and thunderstorms possible favoring central MA / southwestern NH. Highs 78-85. Dew point 60s. Wind SW 5-15 MPH.
SATURDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy. patchy fog. Lows 65-72. Dew point 60s. Wind SW up to 10 MPH.
SUNDAY: Partly sunny. Isolated to scattered afternoon and early evening showers and thunderstorms. Highs 80-87. Dew point 60s. Wind SW 5-15 MPH.
DAYS 6-10 (AUGUST 9-13)
Larger scale: High pressure off the US East Coast is an overall warm to hot August pattern but with limited rain chances. Regional scale: high pressure at the surface centered to the north will bring an easterly flow in for August 9 with modified temperatures and slightly less humid air here, then we’ll experience more warmth and humidity after that.
DAYS 11-15 (AUGUST 14-18)
High pressure off the Atlantic Coast but also high pressure in eastern Canada means a boundary between the two may be closer to our region with continued warmth but a better chance of showers and thunderstorms during mid month.