Boston's first heat wave of the summer likely coming this week
BOSTON - Astronomical summer arrives Thursday and right on cue, the hottest week of the year in the Boston area, thus far, is on the way.
A major pattern change is coming. The jet stream will be pushed northward into Canada allowing a huge ridge of high pressure to take control over the entire eastern United States.
Heat wave starts Tuesday
As of this writing, it appears the heat will arrive on Tuesday and continue for several days in Massachusetts. With fairly persistent southwest winds, we expect many towns away from the South Coast to top 90 degrees starting on Tuesday and, perhaps, lasting right through the end of the week.
Dew points will also be climbing to oppressive levels by mid-and-late week. We could be facing several days with "feels-like" temperatures topping 100 degrees.
Excessive Heat Watch issued for parts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire
The National Weather Service has issued an Excessive Heat Watch for parts of Massachusetts from Tuesday afternoon to Friday evening for the dangerous heat with heat index values up to 105° possible.
Last Boston heat wave
It has been a while since we saw heat of this magnitude in our area. Boston has yet to hit 90 degrees this year and the city only did it five times last summer.
You can see last year stuck out like a sore thumb with very few 90+ days. It's hard to hit 90 when it's raining all the time.
The hottest day in 2023 came on Sept. 7 when Boston hit 93 degrees.
For heat like we are forecasting next week, you have to go back to 2022, a much different summer than last year. This was the last time Boston had an official heat wave (three consecutive days or more of 90+) and, in fact, we even touched 100 on July 24, 2022.
We will have much more on this to come. Stay tuned to WBZ-TV, WBZ.com and CBS News Boston throughout the weekend for the very latest.