A disturbance - chock-full of cold air and energy aloft - is moving through the sky of New England on Friday. This will promote building clouds and pockets of showers and rain for some.
Because the disturbance is slow-moving, eastern New England stays driest the longest. Some decent morning sunshine in eastern Massachusetts will bump temperatures to around 70 degrees.
Western and northern New England will have trouble breaking past 60, though, with showers overhead from early morning onward. By midday into the afternoon, clouds will fill the sky in eastern New England, too, with showers developing for the middle and late afternoon.
Friday’s rain really won’t have any impact on the drought, which was upgraded from severe to extreme in the city of Boston and all suburbs south and southwest of town Thursday. Only a few hundredths of an inch of rain is expected in most of the immediate Boston area. Even in the northern and western reaches of New England, where rain falls for much of the day, will only see a quarter to a third of an inch of rain.
By early evening, clearing will already be marching east down the Massachusetts Turnpike and through most of southern New England. Northern New England will find a day of showers and rain, which will break into pockets of lingering rain east as showers diminish elsewhere.
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By Friday night, a clearing sky and light northwest breeze will complete a transition to bona fide fall air, with overnight low temperatures in the 40s. Fall air holds for the weekend with a fair sky both Saturday and Sunday. High temperatures will be on either side of 65 degrees both days, It will be a bit cooler at the coast, with weak sea breezes developing, and a bit milder inland.
Overnight low temperatures Friday and Saturday will drop to the 40s – 30s in colder spots. The cool nights will accelerate changing foliage on the trees of central and southern New England, just south of the peak color of northern New England this weekend.
On Monday, a storm system will develop over the Atlantic waters south of New England. The bulk of this system will probably stay south of the region, but another bout of energy high in the sky over New England will help to draw at least some showers north into New England.
Scattered showers are a possibility for us all, but the most likely area of focused showers will be in far southern New England, south of the Massachusetts Turnpike, meaning Monday’s event is highly unlikely to be drought-denting.
Next week, our exclusive First Alert 10-day forecast brings one more disturbance through New England late Wednesday and Wednesday night with a chance of showers. Otherwise mostly dry conditions prevail with next weekend already looking good…and even looking at least a few degrees warmer than this weekend!
