Although multiple atmospheric disturbances will cross New England’s sky over the Memorial Day weekend, the overall impact to daytime plans actually may be fairly limited.
After dry daylight hours Thursday, a piece of energy breaking east from the big Plains States storm will move through New England Thursday evening. The problem with this disturbance is it’s very energetic and after sparking severe thunderstorms from Upstate New York south through New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Thursday afternoon, some of these storms will drift east into New England.
Although all will weaken, it’s not impossible some still have enough gusto to cause damage in a few spots Thursday evening. The more widespread impact will be showers, downpours and thunderstorms building from west to east across New England during the early to middle evening, lasting off and on until sometime between midnight and 2 a.m., which will impact Thursday evening plans.
Friday morning likely dawns with sunshine burning through fog except in the North Country, where clouds and mountain showers begin the day, but the high temperature Friday is likely to be reached in the morning for most of eastern New England before a northerly wind and a deck of clouds descends over eastern New England, knocking the temperature back a bit with a brisk wind during the afternoon, probably accompanied by some sprinkles and light showers.
Most of Saturday looks dry ahead of the next disturbance, timed to bring scattered afternoon thunder to northern New England and evening to night showers and thunder elsewhere, departing by Sunday morning, save for a stubborn leftover shower.
With sunshine emerging Sunday and only a few mountain storms during the afternoon, high temperatures should rise above 80 degrees, and Memorial Day looks to be fair for nearly all of New England as of our Friday forecast.
The rest of next week brings rising temperatures again around midweek, with a building chance of scattered thunder in the exclusive First Alert 10-day forecast.