How about that heat yesterday! Mid 90s were good enough to give many towns their hottest day so far this year, but still a good 7-9 degrees below record highs. Additionally, the humidity was modest as the oppressive stuff stayed to our south, so overall, it was a fantastic beach day if you had the chance to take advantage of a day off.
While the heat was the story yesterday, the more active and cooler pattern overall will be the story over the next several days. We’ll start with the change in the pattern today as onshore breezes had brought in some cooler temps across eastern Mass. Those onshore breezes extend inland this morning and where the east wind meets west, that your best chance of locally heavy rain this afternoon as a disturbance to our west swings through, adding to the instability. Scattered showers and storms fire west of 495 as early as 1pm and continue to be in and out through about 8pm. The winds aloft that guide these storms are rather slow, thus providing a slow movement to these storms. With the atmosphere loaded with moisture, locally heavy rain is the main threat, especially in Worcester County. It’s not out of the question that some towns pick up a quick 1-2″, leading to localized street flooding. A few of these storms by mid to late afternoon move east toward the coast, but tend to be more isolated in nature vs. what we’ll see in central Mass. Strong wind gusts and small hail are possible in a couple stronger storms, but downpours seem to be the highest threat today. Storms are hit or miss and that means not all of us will catch rain.
Cooler air holds on Friday-Saturday as onshore winds settle in. I can’t rule out as isolated inland shower Friday, but much of the day is dry. Saturday renews the chance for scattered showers and storms, and Sunday has the chance for lingering isolated showers. While it won’t rain all weekend, as you’ll find your dry hours in there at times, it doesn’t look nearly as beautiful as the past few weekends we’ve had. At least what rain we get helps in the drought situation.
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