This may be the last weekend quite like this for the season – Friday through Sunday are all predicted to be in the 70s to around 80, and none of the days are expected to bring significant rain.
We’ve already been enjoying a late week string of great weather days and milder nights, slowing what was a rapid progression of fall foliage color change due to drought conditions and chilly nights, but that progression will slow, if not halt, in the coming days as milder nights persist into early next week.
New England is straddling between energetic disturbances in cool air to the north, and moisture – some of which is associated with the leftover remnant of former Tropical Storm Beta – to the south. While this setup promises great weather for a time, as meteorologists on your First Alert weather team we need to be on guard for either northern or southern disturbances sneaking in.
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Friday afternoon is one small example: sunny for the vast majority of us, fair weather clouds inland in the afternoon, light sea breezes at the coast -- but a chance for afternoon sprinkles in central and northern Maine with a dying cold front moving in from Canada.
Saturday morning may dawn with clouds and fog in far southern New England owing to a light southerly wind and slightly increasing moisture, though we expect any clouds and fog to burn off quickly for a fair sky and warm temperatures reminiscent of summer.
With the increasing moisture from the south, Connecticut may see a sprinkle by evening but most of us will stay dry…though clouds and fog will likely fill in for southern New England overnight Saturday night, as well as the coast of Maine.
A prolonged southerly wind eventually opens the door to the moisture south of New England, and the first result will be a humid feeling Sunday afternoon for southern New England. In the afternoon, humidity and clouds will be variable and the chance of an isolated shower is about 30% in any given southern New England community.
Nonetheless, most of the day should be dry and temperatures will again rise into the 70s to around 80 all the way to the mountains of New England’s North Country.
On Monday, a weak storm center moves overhead, carrying some remnant moisture of Beta and interacting with our humid air to produce scattered showers and perhaps some embedded downpours.
The slow approach of a cold front Tuesday is unlikely to arrive during the day, meaning the chance of showers is limited Tuesday until the night, when the front arrives but may only carry scattered showers by that point.
In short, we’re not seeing a significant drought-denting rain for at least eastern New England early next week, but there may be a bit more hope in western New England if some of the heavier rain in New York and Pennsylvania can nudge east.
By Wednesday of next week a major pattern change will be underway, with the jet stream dipping deep into the southeastern United States, opening the door for a broad incursion of Canadian cold to most of the Eastern United States, sending our daytime high temperatures into the lower 60s by the end of the week into next weekend in our exclusive First Alert 10-day forecast.
