Good morning everybody, the peak of our current heat and humidity blast ends late today as heat indices push toward the 100º range with highs in the mid 80s to mid 90s from hills to valley, and dewpoints either side of 70º. Forgive me if I’m dreaming of the Winter that just passed us, because this ain’t my scene.

As for other expected conditions today, any early morning scattered showers will track east and abate, leaving us with a partly to mostly sunny hot and humid day that will be dry, though followed by shower and thunderstorm potential west of the I-91 corridor late.

By this evening, a weaker cold front will track into southwest New England and push some scattered showers and thunderstorms, with an isolated chance of a strong to severe thunderstorm (best chance in the Berkshires and/or Litchfield County CT).

One or two cells could produce strong to locally damaging wind gusts or hail. After this activity weakens as it passes into and east of the valley (if it even makes it that far), lows will dip into the upper 50s to mid 60s.

The front will serve to lower our dewpoints, and thus our humidity for at least Saturday, and hopefully into early Sunday (during which may get a brief humidity rise before it drops again for Monday).

It’ll be sunny, and very warm to hot this weekend with highs well into the 80s to near 90º on Saturday (with lows either side of 60º), and then in the mid 80s to low 90s for Sunday as the last of our hot spell gets set to be expelled well east of the greater WMass region for next week.

However, before said summery expulsion occurs, we’ve got to get through a period showers, downpours and thunderstorms Sunday late afternoon into the evening as a strong cold front sweeps into and through our region to end our weekend.

The potential is there for a few strong to severe thunderstorms, yes, but my hunch is that this front will help focus a larger amount of rainfall through the region, so it may convert from more of a severe weather threat to a needed bout of showery wet weather, so I will keep you updated this weekend as we get closer.

The front passes through with Sunday night lows dropping into the low to mid 50s which will be followed by a lovely stretch Monday to Wednesday with lower temps and lower humidity under mostly sunny skies.

Highs Monday will push well into the 70s and stay there (thankfully for this writer) with lows in the upper 40s to mid 50s.

The Tuesday through Thursday stretch looks warmer but not intolerably so, with highs in the mid 70s to mid 80s during that timeframe under mostly sunny skies, with a few showers possible by Thursday.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.”
― Joseph Campbell

YOUR NUTSHELL:
–Scattered regional showers, including some heavier ones over SWNH, will abate this morning, with brightening skies
–Partly to mostly sunny skies will produce highs in the mid 80s to mid 90s
–Some valley folks will see heat indices push into the 95-100º range with high humidity
–A weaker cold front brings a lowering of humidity for Saturday, and also some isolated to scattered showers/storms this late afternoon
–A cell or two may become strong to severe in northwest CT or the Berkshires
–Lows tonight drop into the mid to upper 50s
–This weekend will be continued very warm to hot with highs generally in the 80s to 90º with less humidity Saturday, and a bit more Sunday
–A strong cold front pushes toward the region Sunday afternoon turning sunny skies more mixed with clouds
–While some strong to potentially severe thunderstorms may form with better wind energy along this front, heavier rain is possible
–Late Sunday afternoon and especially Sunday evening may become rainy, which is needed
–Lows Sunday night drop into the mid 50s to lowo 60s
–Next week is way more tolerable temperature-wise and humidity-wise
–Highs Monday will hang in the 70s under sunny skies with a light northeast wind, with lows in the 50-55º range
–Temps will creep up Tuesday through Thursday, but I don’t see any heat waves or big washouts next week
–Highs reach the low 70s to low 80s from hills to valley on Tuesday, then mid 70s to mid 80s for probably the rest of the week with some showers possible by Thursday after a sunny Monday to Wednesday stretch

YOUR DAILY CELESTIALS
STAR:
–OUR STAR ROSE AT: 5:13am this morning
–OUR STAR SETS AT: 8:26pm this evening
–TOTAL DAYLIGHT TIME: 15 hours and 13 minutes

MOON:
–OUR MOON SETS AT: 5:59pm this afternoon
–MOON SET DIRECTION: West-Northwest
–OUR MOON RISES AT: 3:20am tomorrow morning
–MOON RISE DIRECTION: East-Northeast
–MOON PHASE: Waning Crescent (10.6%)