Forecast: Sunny And Warm Couple Of Fall Days Ahead

A fine stretch of weather begins today across southern New England after five cloudy days — and two rainy days — in the past week. Luckily, this new dry stretch will even take us into the long holiday weekend.

Columbus Day weekend is certainly one of the more popular fall weekends for leaf-peeping. The foliage is coming on much stronger now, and although it’s a week or 10 days behind typical patterns, it’s finally progressing nicely.

For the weekend, expect foliage to be near peak conditions across much of central New Hampshire, Vermont and Western Maine, with some nice colors in the Berkshires.

By the third weekend of October the color will be peaking around Boston and then move south from there. Peak isn’t necessarily the best time to view the foliage. When all the leaves have changed there is also a lot of leaf drop. I like to go when the leaves are closer to 70 percent changed.

As high pressure continues to dominate our weather, warmer air will flow in today and Wednesday. Highs will reach the upper 60s to lower 70s by Wednesday before cooling again late this week.

A cold front will bring showers on Friday, but the speed of the front should take the clouds and showers out to sea for the weekend, leaving us with a sunny weekend perfect for all fall outdoor activities. It won’t be very warm, but it will be bright.

Today: Mostly sunny, with highs 64-68.

Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low in the mid 40s.

Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 70.

Thursday: Sunny, and cooler highs between 60-65.

Friday: Cloudy with a period of showers, especially in the afternoon. Highs in the 60s.

Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high in the upper 50s to near 60.

You can follow David’s weather updates on Twitter at @growingwisdom.