Humid air is moving into New England and not only will be felt by day’s end, but also is visible in the weather changes playing out Thursday: clouds have taken over for most of the six-state region and areas of showers, rain and thunder are ongoing or predicted, depending on location.
Morning rain in southeast New England includes downpours on Cape Cod and the Islands, with showers extending north to Hartford, Connecticut and the suburbs immediately south of Boston, with just a few isolated showers and sprinkles expected elsewhere.
For most of southern and eastern New England, youth sports Thursday evening can go off without a hitch, but will be played under clouds and in noticeably humid air. In western and northern New England, an approaching disturbance aloft will interact with the increasing humidity to create pockets of rain and thunder Thursday afternoon into the evening, with some of those thunderstorms growing strong enough to become damaging in a few spots. The area of steady rain associated with these storms will grow to encompass much of western New England during Thursday evening, then inch east across the rest of New England overnight Thursday night with rain, fog, humid air and occasional thunder.
By Friday morning, lingering showers will be tapering for a brief time, but a developing weak wave of low pressure – a weak storm center – may refocus the showers into steadier rain middle to late Friday morning, before a lull around midday in which breaks of sun may emerge, sending temperatures well into the 70s.
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The combination of warming temperatures and humidity will raise the chance of afternoon thunder – particularly in central and southern New England – and some of that thunder could grow strong.
Saturday brings a fair sky and temperatures warming into the 80s until a late day mountain storm may carry south during the night, then deep summer-like heat builds for a likely heat wave – three days or more of 90 degree plus temperatures – Sunday into the middle of next week.
While thunderstorms would be possible on those days owing to the heat and humidity, they will likely become more focused toward week’s end with an approaching cold front.
