Good afternoon everybody, we saw lots of 80s to low 90s high temps today and for some in the more southern part of WMass down into northern CT, that’s the 2nd consecutive day piercing 90º.

Given our heat will peak tomorrow, likely rising well into the 90s for many areas (with some mid to upper 80s in the high terrain and mountains) some of us will not only log a legit heat wave, but some high-temp records will also be tied or broken on Tuesday.

Low temps will hang well into the 60s overnight under mostly clear skies, and then our temps will take off tomorrow, rising into the upper 80s to mid 90s at least, with some upper 90s possible in the lower Pioneer Valley.

Air Quality indices are up to either side of 50 this afternoon, and so Air Quality Alerts have been posted by the MA and CT DEP offices for the lower terrain of Hampshire and Hampden Counties, as well as Hartford and Litchfield Counties in the northwestern half of CT.

As it turns out, humidity looks like it should be more tolerable than originally anticipated for Tuesday afternoon, evening and Wednesday. Still, dewpoints could climb into the mid 60s or so by Tuesday evening.

At this stage, I do think some isolated showers, downpours and strong thunderstorms will form each day. The main concern is very localized strong wind gusts.

In general, the Tuesday cells will be more likely to occur (or at least initiate) in the western high terrain due to fairly unstable air pushing into the mountains and being forced to rise, as you always need that reason to kick the moist air skyward to bubble up some cumulonimbus.

On Wednesday, though, the front will be sagging south and east, and so I think it’s more likely that somewhere along and south of the Pike is where additional isolated strong to severe thunderstorms may form.

We’re cooler and drier late week, but I will update on our incoming summer weather for Tuesday and Wednesday by tomorrow morning.

Have a great evening, Dave.