Scattered showers in New England as Hurricane Helene bears down on Florida

It's a wet day on tap locally, with rain chances and scattered showers sticking with us through the evening.

While there will be a few breaks in the rain, there will also be some heavier downpours, especially south of Boston.  An isolated thunderstorm or two could also develop, but the threat of severe weather remains low. A few areas could see up to an inch of rain or more. Otherwise, we’ll see cloudy skies and high temperatures in the upper 60s.  Lows will be near 60 on Friday.

Early Friday morning, some pockets of heavy rain will line the Cape and the Southern New England coast. Rain chances are much lower once the sun comes up Friday with a mild day on tap and temperatures in the low to mid-70s. 

We'll see partly cloudy skies for the weekend with high pressure in control — we like high pressure for some fair and cool outdoor days—a few clouds but predominantly sunny with highs in the 60s. Highs will be near 70 by Monday.  A nice dry stretch comes to an end mid-next week as clouds make way for rain chances by Wednesday. 

All eyes are on Hurricane Helene in the Gulf of Mexico. Helene continues to strengthen and pick up speed as it aims for the Big Bend region. This evening to early Friday, Helene will make landfall along Big Bend, near the state capital as a major hurricane (Category 3+). This storm is a big one, the swath of tropical storm force winds encompassing the peninsula of Florida through the day and bringing intense storm surge to the west coast of Florida. We're expecting a 5'-8' storm surge in Tampa Bay, and a catastrophic 15'-20' ft storm surge lining the coast of the Big Bend.

With quite a bit of forward momentum, Friday as the sun comes up, Helene will be over the Southern Appalachian Mountains in North Georgia as a tropical storm. Then weakening over the southeast by late Friday.