In the coming days, we're in for some notable weather changes.
Friday, scattered (east) to numerous (west) showers are expected as a strengthening jet stream disturbance moves through the Great Lakes and approaches New England. Most of the showers will be concentrated in western Massachusetts and Connecticut, where an embedded thunderstorm can't be ruled out, producing locally heavy rain, with a few hours of showers in eastern New England centered around midday, but hours of dry weather ahead of and behind those showers.
Even with abundant clouds, high temperatures will reach the mid-60s, with upper 60s possible in the southeast, but the Berkshires and northern New England will be cooler, in the upper 50s, due to the focus of the showers.
As we move into Friday night and Saturday, a developing surface storm ahead of the strengthening jet stream disturbance will create conditions for the storm center to intensify as it moves over southern New England and toward the Gulf of Maine. Saturday, this system will bring widespread showers, isolated thunderstorms, and locally heavy rainfall, particularly in the Berkshires and in Northern New England, where up to 2-3 inches of rain is possible over two days.
Other areas can expect either side of an inch of rain — not enough for widespread flooding, though portions of western, central and northern New England where autumn leaves are more prone to fall may see clogged storm drains for some standing water on roads during heavier bouts of rain.
As the storm system moves away from Cape Cod into the Gulf of Maine, the rain will gradually taper from the southwest overnight Saturday night as winds shift to the west-northwest with strong Saturday night gusts along the South Coast — particularly the Cape and Islands to 45 miles per hour.
Sunday, the wind expands for most of New England with frequent gusts to 35 mph, pulling leaves down across northern New England and creating a blustery feeling regionwide with highs only in the 50s.
Showers will be few and far between in southern New England Sunday, though more numerous showers will crop up in central and northern New England.
At the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, this all means widely varied race conditions, from a tailwind with a few showers Friday, to a soaking rain but less wind Saturday, then a gusty headwind with chop on the Charles River Sunday.
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Beyond the weekend, cool and dry conditions start the week Monday and some frost is possible for inland suburbs of Boston Monday overnight — and more likely the farther north and west one is as temperatures dip into the 30s.
Thereafter, we see a return to milder conditions at midweek, with a chance of some places seeing temperatures reach the 70s by Wednesday.
