forecast

Severe Afternoon Thunderstorms Break Multi-Day Heat Wave

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A few strong to severe thunderstorms are breaking the multi-day heatwave in New England. Boston and southeastern New England have not experienced the heatwave, while much of western and northern New England had five to six days of 90-degree plus weather.

Tuesday and the day before Burlington, Vermont hit 96 degrees, the city in New England hardest hit by the heat. That's where the rain first arrived this morning, with less humid air and temperatures in the 80s this afternoon.

Areas that have already seen the rain are probably done for today. But where we have some sunny breaks in southern and eastern New England, we are ripe for a line of thunderstorms from west to east from this afternoon through sunset.

These showers likely arrive in the Boston area around 3 p.m. with some downpours which may water the lawn with a half-inch or more of rain very quickly. But once again it's like the lottery… not everyone is going to get rain.

The wind is generally from the southwest at 10 to 20 mph, but much stronger up in the sky. Some of that stronger wind could mix down in thunderstorms with some isolated wind damage and power outages this afternoon.

Storms are pretty much done around sunset, with a nice crescent moon in the sky tonight as less humid air comes in from the west. By tomorrow morning most of New England has a dewpoint in the 50s to lower 60s, down from near 70 degrees today.

Tomorrow features a good amount of sunshine, with building afternoon clouds and just a chance for a shower or thunderstorm, high temperature in the 80s.

The front passing New England today is going to stall just over the water to our east with waves of energy coming by. There's a chance we may get a period of significant rain and parts of southeastern New England Friday morning. In fact, just about every day has a chance for showers or thunderstorms, even though we're in such a dry pattern.

The weekend is a tough call with another front stalled over New England. Unseasonably strong low pressure is going to ride along that front across Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine late Saturday and Saturday night. That may result in some localized heavy rain, especially western and northern New England.

Saturday likely features steamy weather in southern New England with wind from the south and temperatures in the 80s. While in northern Maine we may have a wind from the north and temperatures in the 50s. That sets up the potential for possible flash flooding in the lakes and mountains late Saturday through first thing Sunday.

It's still early, so don't cancel any plans for the weekend yet. The south coast looks like it could have the best weather, likely beach weather. But we'd be hesitant to camp in the mountains Saturday night.

Sunday may dry out from north to south, but the forecast is still really up in the air. That front may still be with us Monday and Tuesday with an onshore flow keeping us on the cool side with perhaps some more rain again early next week, as seen in our First Alert 10-Day Forecast.

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