7:25AM
COMMENTARY
Just a quick comment on forecasting and its media maze. Limited air time, too many platforms to update, and in some cases just plain poor forecasting made many folks believe that a widespread moderate to heavy rain event was expected yesterday. It wasn’t. This blog, and other sources, tried the best they could to highlight that heaviest rainfall would be limited to certain areas, and that many areas would largely miss out. As it turned out, it was even more limited, area-wise, than I indicated in the discussion posted on yesterday’s blog, with Nantucket really being the only place that saw impactful rain over several hours, while other areas near the South Coast were wet for several hours then dried out, and the band from the north had fairly weak legs and its impact was confined mostly to parts of southern NH and far northeastern MA. I really wish that instead of sunny, nearly seasonable days being “top story” worthy for news casts, they could find a way to give more time to weather when it is NEEDED, even if it’s just to explain a situation better. If that happened, the majority of the population would stop walking around misinformed about the weather for the day. Wishful thinking? It seems so in regards to most media platforms at this point.
DAYS 1-5 (AUGUST 14-18)
Now if I told you there are shower threats the next 5 days, you’d probably think to yourself “rainy pattern” or “wet pattern”, and that would be a fair conclusion to reach if the information given stopped there, but this is why I write this discussion. We will be, in fact, in a fairly dry pattern during these 5 days. That weak westerly flow that was mentioned for mid August back so many days ago on a previous blog will be taking place, and weak disturbances helping to interact with more local effects (sea breezes mainly) will come along to help produce those shower threats, but they will be minor, rather isolated, temporary, and the result will be that most of our area will be dry during this stretch, with weak high pressure more often in control and producing rain-free conditions than we see disturbances interacting with sea breeze boundaries and helping showers to pop up. Nevertheless, afternoons from Thursday through Sunday will be when we’ll need to watch for such pop up activity. Please do not cancel any outdoor plans if you see rain drops slathered across your app.
Forecast details…
TODAY: Variably cloudy. A brief very light shower possible north central MA and southwestern NH this morning. Highs 73-80. Wind N to NE 5-15 MPH, a few higher gusts along the coast.
TONIGHT: Partly cloudy. Lows 55-62. Wind light NE to E.
THURSDAY: Partly sunny. A brief pop-up shower possible southwestern NH afternoon. A passing shower possible outer Cape Cod / Islands too.
Highs 73-80. Wind E to SE up to 10 MPH.
THURSDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy. Lows 55-62. Wind light SE.
FRIDAY: Partly sunny. Passing light showers possible Cape Cod / Islands and a slight risk of an afternoon pop-up shower interior hills.
Highs 75-82. Wind variable, mostly SE, up to 10 MPH.
FRIDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy. Patchy fog. Lows 60-67. Wind light variable.
SATURDAY: Partly cloudy. Isolated afternoon showers. More humid. Highs 78-85. Wind variable 5-15 MPH.
SATURDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy. Patchy fog. Humid. Lows 62-69. Wind light S.
SUNDAY: Partly sunny. Isolated afternoon showers. Humid. Highs 80-87. Wind S up to 10 MPH.
DAYS 6-10 (AUGUST 19-23)
Jet stream remains weak and lifts to the north with temperatures sliding to the warmer side of normal, a some late summer heat/humidity, and limited shower/thunderstorm threats.
DAYS 11-15 (AUGUST 24-28)
A warm to hot late summer pattern with moderate to high humidity, and a few opportunities for thunderstorms, as high pressure ridging and a northward-displaced jet stream is the pattern for New England to start out, and then the jet stream wanders back to the south as a weak trough moves into the Great Lakes / Northeast, increasing the risk for showers/thunderstorms later in the period.