Natural & Manmade Fireworks

We're celebrating America and summer weather and I hope you have been enjoying this holiday weekend. The temperatures maxed out in the upper 80s to lower 90s except upper 70s to lower 80s on Cape Cod this afternoon. It reached 90 degrees in Boston at 3:28pm and that is only the second day of 90-degree heat this season after the 92 degrees on June 9. With a weak secondary boundary linking with atmospheric instability over southern ME, southern NH and northern MA, scattered thunderstorms were triggered. A few isolated cells became severe. Southern Rockingham County, NH and northern Esssex County, MA were pummeled with continuous wicked cloud to ground lightning bolts plus scattered hailstones up to 1" in diameter with torrential downpours that produced street flooding. On the WBZ WeatherBug Network, Amesbury Middle School received 1.3" and the Triton Regional Middle School had 1.6" of rain! There was some minor damage. Between 8 and 9pm, the loss of the sun's heating and decreasing instability resulted in a rapid dissipation of the action. While the nasty storms affected thousands of vacationers on the beaches up north, Boston dodged a big bullet as hundreds of thousands of folks anxiously awaited the Pops Concert and the Spectacular Fireworks Display on the Esplanade.

Looking ahead, typical early July weather is in store. The temperatures will actually be a few degrees above the average but no extremes or new records will happen. The 100 degrees of last July 6 will not be matched this year. Instead, expect highs in the upper 80s to near 90 except closer to 80 at the beaches tomorrow, upper 80s to lower 90s except near 80 on Cape Cod on Wednesday then middle to upper 80s on Thursday and lower to middle 80s on Friday through Sunday except a bit cooler at the beaches. The humidity will slightly decrease tomorrow then become high again on Wednesday into Thursday with noticeably drier air here over the weekend.  Sunshine will be prevalent over the next couple days followed by a risk of a passing shower or storm later Wednesday night or Thursday. If all goes well, the weekend will feature plentiful sunshine as a bubble of high pressure builds in over the region. High tides will start out near 3pm tomorrow and progress to about 7pm this weekend. The ocean has warmed up to the middle to upper 60s with the lakes in the 70s.

Melissa Mack delivers her latest AccuWeather Forecast in the morning and Todd Gutner follows later in the day.

Have a great holiday week!