Out With The Muggies
Today was more like the 4th of July than the 30th of May. This Memorial Day was definitely summery with high temperatures of 85-90 degrees over most of the region. A cold front is settling south of the Mass Pike early this evening without any showers or boomers. Apparently, the atmosphere was stabilized by the passage of a deteriorating diurnal mesoscale convective complex which fired in western New York late last evening. This cluster of storms produced some nasty weather in southwestern MA and western CT around 7am but soon after, it weakened into a batch of drying-up showers and sprinkles which spread into the Boston area briefly around 9-10am. The lack of additional perturbations in the upper level wind field lead to a quiet afternoon despite the frontal boundary pressing into the area. Behind the front, the air is still very warm but there is a noticeable drop in dewpoints. Turn on the window fans to suck in the much drier and cooling air tonight. By dawn, it will be down to a delightful 57-63 degrees with low humidity. There will be a sea breeze blowing up to 10-15 mph from the get-go tomorrow so coastal locations will top out near or just under 70 degrees while more than 5 miles inland, it will warm up to 76-80. After any clumps of low clouds possibly cross southeastern MA and Cape Cod overnight, most of the area will soak up sunshine with varying amounts of patchy mid and high level cloudiness.
Looking ahead, the front becomes a warm boundary and retreats through the area tomorrow night and perhaps introduces a layer of low clouds which will break up on Wednesday as other clouds arrive from the west and yield developing spotty showers and heavier boomers in the afternoon. Some intervals of sunshine with higher humidity again will send the temperatures back to the lower to middle 80s except 70s at south-facing coastal locations. Meantime, an approaching cold front sweeping the nation from the Midwest to the Northeast will arrive in our area Wednesday afternoon. This front will proceed offshore in the evening as the jet stream drives in from the northwest and more refreshing air flows in from Canada. Thursday will start sunny but minor impulses in the jet stream will carry batches of clouds across northern New England with some scooting across the sky of southern sections as well. In fact, there is a hint of a secondary cold front or trough of low pressure passing through later that afternoon to trigger a few spotty sprinkles or light showers as the gusty wind blows from the west. After a high near 78 on Thursday, Friday will still be breezy but with fewer clouds in the afternoon and a max near 75. Saturday should be near 80 and sunny most of the day until clouds arrive toward evening followed by some showers at night. A few showers may still occur next Sunday as another boundary slowly crosses the region.
This Memorial Day Weekend is considered the kickoff of the summer season. Without question, it has been summery for the past several days but there is one more day of spring before meteorological Summer begins on June 1 which is Wednesday. Astronomically, summer starts on June 21 with the solstice at 1:16pm.
Melissa Mack delivers her latest WBZ AccuWeather Forecast in the morning starting at 4:30 on the tv side. Todd Gutner returns later in the day.
Have a good night!
