Boston

Memorial Day Weekend to Start Rainy, End Delightful

Temperatures will feel more like summer than spring

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Many New Englanders consider Memorial Day weekend to be the unofficial start of summer – the weather isn’t always eager to oblige, but this year, the 10-day forecast during and after Memorial Day weekend does look more like summer than spring. 

Thursday clouds have been thin enough for sun to shine through them at times, and while the clouds will be variable through the day, temperatures will still rise to the 70s inland and 60s along the coast with a southerly to southeast wind gradually increasing, particularly during the afternoon. 

Clouds will thicken overnight Thursday night as an envelope of warmth and humidity around a sprawling storm system over the Midwest moves into the Northeast U.S., touching off a few sprinkles and light showers in Southern New England by dawn Friday, and continuing to produce just a few isolated to widely scattered sprinkles and light showers over the course of Friday, throughout New England, with a noticeable increase in humidity. 

To the west, thunderstorms will fire in Upstate New York Friday afternoon and evening, drifting east to deliver rain overnight Friday night from west to east in New England, lasting as showers and perhaps some lingering embedded downpours in eastern New England Saturday morning, departing the Cape last around late morning. 

Not long after, a slow cold front crossing New England from the northwest will touch off renewed showers, downpours and embedded thunder in Northern and Western New England that will recur, off and on, through much of the day while slowly expanding southeast into interior Central and Southern New England Saturday afternoon, perhaps encroaching on the coast by late day and evening.  The Saturday weather story we’re left with is an unsettled one in Northern and Western New England, but a humid one with only periods of showers elsewhere. 

The cold front will complete its passage through New England Saturday night, decreasing humidity and nearly wiping out the shower chance entirely for Sunday and Memorial Day, with high temperatures in the 70s to lower 80s.  A reminder for those into water sports that our ocean and lake water is still cold, with hypothermia a danger for those who fall in or are submerged, so you want to dress for the water temperature, NOT the air temperature. 

Next week should feature a number of days with afternoon highs in the 80s for the interior, though a gentle prevailing wind will allow for sea breezes near the coast each day, with our dry pattern likely to continue until a building chance of showers next Friday, toward the end of the exclusive First Alert 10-day forecast.

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