A small bubble of high pressure – fair weather – is doing the trick in New England Monday to deliver sunshine mixed with some high-altitude clouds that decorated the sky at sunrise and continue to throughout the day.
With a nearly quiet wind, light sea breezes will develop near the ocean Monday afternoon. Temperatures will be limited in their recovery from early morning lows in the 30s to afternoon highs near 60 degrees.
Clouds thicken Monday night with a southerly wind helping to keep temperatures in the 40s, setting the stage for a milder day. High temperatures will near 70 for central and southern New England Tuesday.
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In northern New England, a cold front approaching from Canada late Monday will first launch rain showers into the Champlain Valley and northern Vermont Monday evening, the Great North Woods and Northern Maine Monday night and much of the North Country Tuesday morning.
The slow-moving cold front will settle south with showers into the Lakes Region and Queen City of New Hampshire Tuesday afternoon to evening, extending into southern Maine by evening as well.
Farther south, rain won’t be as likely, but also isn’t impossible. Some sprinkles and light showers are in the forecast for the southern half of New England under plenty of clouds Tuesday. Showers are a bit more likely in southeast Massachusetts, including the Cape and Islands from more humid air moving across southeastern New England.
The slow-moving cold front will stall then reverse direction over central and northern New England Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. It will deliver a swath of rain farther south before retreating as a warm front, allowing a warm southerly wind to take hold again and bumping temperatures into the 70s in southern New England with increasing Wednesday afternoon sun.
That same front, wavering north to south to north, will waver once more on Thursday, again dropping south as a cold front and this time changing the air for all of New England Thursday night into Friday. Believe it or not, one more bounce mild, then cool, is anticipated Saturday, then Sunday, respectively, with a couple of quick showers in the transition but not likely substantial rain. From Sunday onward into next week, our exclusive First Alert 10-day forecast shows cooler air decidedly winning out.