Forecast: Nice Weekend Ahead, Showers Come Back Next Week

After another comfortable night of sleeping weather, the weekend is here and it looks pretty good. A storm system which brought widespread rain to the center of the county is going to stay mostly offshore through Sunday and not bring showers or even a lot of clouds to most areas.

Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard will be close enough to the storm to see more in the way of clouds and a chance of a period of rain for some light showers. Even there, it’s not a washout weekend and if the system moves further east than expected, the showers won’t materialize.

The position of the storm this weekend will bring a northeasterly flow of air. When winds come from this direction, it keeps the coast cooler this time of year. This means low to mid-70s for high temperatures this weekend at many beaches, but somewhat warmer inland.

The overall upper pattern is such that eventually we are going to see some rain. I think early next week another area of showers and very humid air will ride north on the upper level flow and bring a widespread steady rain to the area for part of Tuesday night into sometime on Wednesday.

Of course this forecast will need to be refined somewhat as we get closer to this date, but it’s looking more likely we’ll see an unsettled period of weather next week.

This summer, like the last one, is looking more and more like we aren’t going to see a prolonged period of heat. We haven’t had any heat waves since the summer of 2013. It’s not impossible to get a heat wave during the second part of August or even September, but the deeper in the final month of summer we go, the less likely it becomes.

As we continue to lose light and the angle of the sun becomes lower and lower, the amount of available solar energy decreases. This decrease in incoming ultraviolet light lowers the chances of reaching 90 degrees for three days in row.

Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high 73-78. Coolest at the coast.

Friday Night: Partly cloudy, comfortably cool. Lows in the upper 50s to mid-60s.

Saturday: Mostly sunny, highs 73-78.

Sunday: Sunshine and clouds, more clouds south with a shower over Cape Cod and the islands possible. Highs in the 70s.

Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 80.