After Sunday’s rain and storms featured an EF0 tornado touchdown in North Brookfield, Massachusetts– the first tornado touchdown in the Commonwealth since September of 2021 – nearly all of New England will enjoy a much-deserved break from thunder Monday.
Of course, considerable clean-up and repairs are underway to roads and neighborhoods across New England from the recent heavy rain and flooding, and will continue for several days ahead, as some of the road and highway washouts, particularly in New Hampshire and Vermont, are significant and highly impactful, leaving towns or portions of towns inaccessible.
Nonetheless, while Monday won’t storm, it certainly still feels like it could with the tropical humidity and heat – high temperatures Monday afternoon will reach and exceed 90 in spots, with most communities certainly experiencing a heat index, or “feels like” temperature, in the 90s. Lots of sun and a strong summer sun angle means an extreme UV Index, making sunscreen important for outdoor activities. While the air aloft is dry enough to preclude thunderstorm development, that air also will fill with wildfire smoke Monday afternoon from west to east, and by Monday evening, some of northern and western New England very well may smell the smoke in the air, as air quality will deteriorate to moderate regionwide by evening.
Like the rounds of smoke a few weeks ago, this smoke has originated from Canadian wildfires and will last for at least Monday and Tuesday. The difference Tuesday is we expect more clouds, so the smoke may be less apparent, with an approaching jet stream level disturbance and its attendant surface cold front triggering afternoon showers and thunder Tuesday that will start in the hills and mountains, then spread toward the coastal plain in at least widely scattered form by evening, before weakening.
Right now, our First Alert Team continues carrying a chance of isolated thunder Wednesday afternoon, as well, though there are some indications we may see just enough drier air sneaking into our sky to limit the thunder chance and perhaps even lower the humidity slightly for some, so we’ll continue to evaluate that potential and may be able to clean up the Wednesday forecast a bit more, though even as of now it features only scattered PM thunder.
Weather Stories
Thursday and Friday are likely to be more unsettled days, with a greater number of showers, downpours and thunderstorms as a slug of exceptionally warm and humid air surges into New England from the south. A cold front later Friday should beat back the heat and humidity somewhat for Saturday, though scattered PM thunder is possible again as a second cold front arrives – this time, likely to reduce both humidity and storm chances by Sunday with ample sunshine lasting into the start of next week before humidity and a chance of thunder returns toward the end of our exclusive First Alert 10-day forecast.
