Clouds, showers and pockets of rain Wednesday are all part of New England’s transition from cooler, drier air to warmer, more humid air.
The increase in humidity will be noticeable for all, but most pronounced on Cape Cod Wednesday, then humidity will increase for one and all overnight Wednesday night for an uncomfortable sleeping night.
Between now and then, showers mark the change in air but will only add up to about one- or two-tenths of an inch of rain in the midst of a moderate to severe drought. It might be a good idea to close the house windows Wednesday and trap the more comfortable air inside instead of needing to switch on the air conditioning or feel sticky overnight Wednesday night into Thursday.
A quick-moving disturbance late Wednesday night into Thursday morning will be rippling through the new humidity, and should trigger a few predawn and early morning Thursday showers before departing and allowing clouds to begrudgingly give way to increasing sunshine Thursday, teaming with a light south wind to bump temperatures into the 80s with sticky humidity Thursday afternoon.
While the air will feel heavy enough for thunder, right now there doesn’t appear to be a disturbance strong enough to touch storms off so, save for some hilly or mountainous terrain storms, widespread thunder isn’t expected during the day…though another overnight disturbance raises the chance overnight Thursday night into early Friday morning.
A strong cold front will cross New England from northwest to southeast on Friday, meaning the day starts very humid but should end noticeably less so. Normally, a strong cold front would touch off a round of thunderstorms and while our First Alert Team is carefully watching the setup and not ruling out a few storms, right now it appears there may be enough dry air to substantially limit that chance.
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The incoming dry air will totally take over for the weekend with sunshine and comfortable air with highs in the 70s and cool, comfortable, dry nights, great for Labor Day weekend firepits, but keep in mind the dry, drought-stricken conditions and use caution while enjoying.
Next week starts great, including Labor Day, then likely gives way to rain – perhaps some heavier, more meaningful rain infused with tropical moisture – by the end of the week in our exclusive First Alert 10-day forecast.
