Remarkably pleasant air remains in place regionwide for New England Wednesday as a small but distinct bubble of high pressure – a fair weather cell – remains parked over the region for one more day.
Warmth and humidity aren’t far away with much of the eastern U.S. still very much in that classic summer air, so our reprieve will expire soon. For one more day, though, we enjoy dew point temperatures in the 50s with the only sign of nearby humidity seen in the high-altitude clouds that ride overhead and dim our sunshine at times.
Even with dry, comfortable air, most communities rise into the 80s. Expect lower 80s near the coast before a gentle sea breeze eases temperatures into the 70s by evening, and middle 80s inland.
Clouds will gradually increase overnight Wednesday night as a storm center near James Bay, Canada, winds up and draws a warm front into New England, promoting a south wind that will increase humidity over the South Coast overnight, delivering pockets of clouds and fog to the South Coast by Thursday morning.
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Clouds should outnumber sunny breaks for most of New England Thursday, with scattered showers developing from west to east across New England, morning to midday, respectively, then continuing to develop in scattered clusters through the afternoon and into the evening, as steadily increasing humidity results in embedded thunderstorms.
Although not a clear signal as of this Wednesday morning forecast, there are signs a few of these storms could become strong Thursday evening around central New England, from northern Massachusetts to central New Hampshire, something we’ll monitor in the coming day.
We've issued a First Alert for Thursday because of the possibility for damaging winds and hail amid from scattered severe thunderstorms in parts of New England.
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Although humidity remains high on Friday with more clouds than sun, showers will likely be limited for much of the day without much in the way of a trigger to fire them up. That's at least until the heating of the afternoon and approach of a cold front late in the day that will lead to some scattered showers and thunder later Friday before another change in air to a pleasant round of summer warmth with fair sky for both weekend days.
Next week, our exclusive First Alert 10-day forecast shows a return of heat with temperatures either side of 90 degrees on many if not all days and while humidity may be slow to build, it will, with high humidity likely to be back in place for the middle and end of the week.
