New England is on the cusp of our foray into the deep heat that’s been making headlines across the country over the past few weeks, though we’ll see only a brief spell of intense heat. In fact, Tuesday afternoon’s thunderstorms represented a wind shift that has trickled less humid air into New England, so the air Wednesday really isn’t all that humid to start – and even drier aloft – so with no strong disturbances rippling through our sky, Wednesday will be a sunny and storm-free day.
With the humidity only slowly rising, neither the hot temperatures near 90 degrees or the moderate humidity resulting in a heat index only a couple of degrees hotter, will qualify as dangerous heat. Couple that run-of-the-mill summer heat with a good quality air and, aside from a very high UV index, Wednesday isn’t terrible on the body.
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That said, Wednesday is the day to start taking care of the body: hydrating, applying sunscreen, exercising in the morning rather than later in the day – all of these are things that will help ease the shock of heat that has been unprecedented in this cool season, with Thursday and Friday coupling temperatures in the 90s with humidity for heat index values of 95 to 100 degrees.
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More on the heat coming to Boston and New England
Storms are in the forecast Thursday. In fact, with the surge of deeper heat and humidity, northern New England sits on the northern edge of that air and will find a few showers in the morning, then a couple of rounds of thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening. Further south, the southern half of New England may find an isolated storm in the afternoon, but it’s the evening when the greatest risk for thunder moves in, and with so much heat and humidity, that’s a lot of available energy for storm growth. The result will probably be some storms growing strong enough to produce damaging wind and hail – and localized flash flooding is possible right now in any prolonged downpours given the recent rainfall resulting in a moist ground unable to absorb much moisture.
Friday will be the peak of heat and humidity for New England. In fact, Friday is a day when there really won’t be much cool/warm clash for storm development because so much of New England, at the ground and aloft, will just be hot! So, while an isolated strong storm could pop up in the heat and humidity, right now they don’t look to impact most of us.
Saturday is a very different story — our weather team already was carrying a First Alert for Thursday due to heat and storms, and Friday due to heat, but now we’ve added Saturday as a First Alert Day, too, thanks to the expectation an incoming cold front during the afternoon will prompt numerous thunderstorms to develop, with some of the storms possibly turning strong.
Behind that cold front, though, it’s a whole new world – the air Sunday should be spectacular with lower humidity and much cooler temperatures in the 70s reaching for 80 degrees under a fair sky. Although a few showers are possible Monday, then again later next week, right now they look scattered and the air will continue to be fairly comfortable through the end of the exclusive First Alert 10-day forecast, at least relative to these next couple of days!
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