Heavy rain, possibly damaging wind gusts to be followed by chilly Friday
By Terry Eliasen, Meteorologist, WBZ-TV Exec. Weather Producer
BOSTON - Welcome to a rainy Thursday. In case you are wondering, no, the drought is not over yet. In fact, we got an update this morning (which doesn't include Thursday's rain) and we did make improvements since last week.
The area of severe drought along the South Coast is now gone and the total "severe" drought area in Massachusetts decreased from 86% to 72%. Clearly, we are heading in the right direction and Thursday's rainfall will make another dent.
We had one line of downpours come through this morning and round two will arrive along with the actual cold front early this afternoon. Expect another couple hours of embedded downpours and thunderstorms, mainly between noon and 4 p.m. (lasting a bit longer on Cape Cod).
The rain will taper off this evening, just as the Autumnal Equinox (the start of fall) arrives! And, how fitting, as fall arrives on the calendar, the coldest air yet will be pouring into New England!
Friday will be brisk, blustery and crisp and highs will struggle to reach 60 degrees. At night, temperatures will drop into the 40s and even some 30s in the distant suburbs. Given that the wind will stay a bit busy, I am not expecting any frost issues locally.
This weekend will be a great first weekend of fall! Highs in the 60's on Saturday and 70's on Sunday with dry air and much less wind than Friday. Sunday will be a great day to be at Gillette Stadium for the Patriots home opener!
Lastly, all eyes will be on the tropics in the coming weeks. Fiona will head up into the Canadian Maritimes this weekend, well east of New England.
There is a high surf advisory for the South Coast of New England through Friday evening due to some of the outer swells from Fiona. Expecting to see waves 5-to-9 feet in these areas.
Next week, we will be watching what could eventually be tropical storm/hurricane Hermine. Right now, it is just an area of disturbed weather off the South American coast, but most models are forecasting it will get its act together this weekend and threaten some area of the Gulf of Mexico/Cuba/Florida next week.