A cold front is ushering in sharply cooler and less humid air crosses New England Tuesday. With it comes showers, rain, some thunder and then a whole new feeling for all six states.
Though all of New England dawned with humidity and warmth still in place, by mid-morning the cold front was marching across the Northern Green Mountains of Vermont and Presidentials of New Hampshire. The dramatic shift caused the wind direction to start blowing from the northwest, rather than the southwest.
The cold front will make quick progress southward, throwing sail boaters for a loop as the wind shifts, marking the start of cooler air. Showers will fill in from west to east during the late morning to afternoon, respectively.
Embedded downpours and thunder are expected as an area of rain fills in for the evening in all but northwest New England. Severe thunderstorms are far less likely Tuesday than they were in northern New England Monday because the cooler air is undercutting the developing showers, reducing the amount of available thunderstorm energy with the possible exception of Cape Cod.
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Two to four foot waves will arrive at our beaches after decaying Tropical Storm Claudette passes, but those will seem small compared to the seven to nine foot waves offshore. Even though the waves won’t be that big close to shore, the power behind them will be enough to create rip currents at New England beaches. Swimmers should stay alert and especially attentive to kids in the water.
By midnight Tuesday night, showers will be gone and clearing will be underway, leaving a phenomenal stretch of low humidity, bright sky and comfortable air Wednesday through Friday.
This weekend into next week, a large area of high pressure – fair weather – will set up over the western Atlantic Ocean. A clockwise flow of air around it will deliver increasing warmth and humidity up and down the Eastern Seaboard from Saturday onward, returning high temperatures into the 80s.
With increasing humidity this weekend into next week, the chance of scattered afternoon showers and thunder rises, too. No one spot seems likely to receive storms each of the days and the chance of storms on any given afternoon may rise and fall depending upon the strength of the fair weather dome offshore.
Either way, we seem certain to jump back into deep summer warmth through next week in our exclusive First Alert 10-day forecast.
