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David Epstein

What’s in store for this weekend’s weather

The weekend has arrived, and the forecast is, of course, critical to your outdoor plans. With the remnants of a tropical storm playing a role in the forecast, you might need some clarity on what will be happening this weekend.

Pick of the weekend

First off, Sunday looks stunning. I want to start there because that’s the easy part of the forecast. We should see plenty of sunshine, low humidity, and temperatures in the lower 80s. Nearly ideal weather. Sunday will be a good day for the beach, a hike, or just getting things done in the garden.

With sunshine Sunday, it will be a nice day at the beaches. Tides are high just after noon.

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A murkier Saturday forecast

The issue with our weather this weekend is Saturday. The dilemma for forecasters is how quickly the morning showers and clouds will depart. It won’t be chilly, that’s for sure, and the humidity will be high when you get up in the morning. Friday night will be muggy with lows only in the lower 70s.

Lows Saturday morning will be quite warm.

Highs reach into the 80s Saturday, 70s over Cape Cod. NOAA

I know it makes a big difference to any outdoor plans if we see clearing at 11 a.m. as opposed to 4 p.m. on a weekend day. Presently, I am counting on the showers ending late morning and sunshine returning earlier rather than later in the afternoon. Clearing moves in from west to east, so if you are heading to, say, the Berkshires, it might be sunny by 8 a.m.

A bit of meteorology

Let’s look at the forecast cloud loop below. This runs from Friday afternoon through Sunday midafternoon. The timestamp is on the upper left. The time is in Greenwich mean time. To make this easy for you, 12z is 8 a.m., 18z is 2 p.m., and 00z is 8 p.m.

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What you are seeing is a computer-generated cloud prediction. The colors are associated with higher clouds and, in this case, contain possible showers. Notice around 12z Saturday (8 a.m.) a blob moving over Southern New England, that’s the remnants of Tropical Storm Cindy. It actually gets larger as it passes by because of the interaction with a cold front. This is why there are downpours in the forecast in the morning. On the plus side, it’s moving fast and once that is east of the area at least partial sun should return quickly.

Clearing takes place later Saturday as the remnants of Cindy pass east of New England. (Tropical Tidbits)

Cape Cod, being farthest east, will see the clearing take place last. This means you shouldn’t expect much if any sunshine until later in the day Saturday. If the system does speed up, then consider it a bonus if the sun returns earlier.

Clouds will still be thick over Cape Cod late Saturday morning. WeatherBell

Not a long rain event

Some of the downpours could be heavy enough south of Boston to create some quick street flooding, but in general, this isn’t a big rain event.

Rainfall will be heaviest south of Boston Saturday morning.NOAA

Vacation weather

The pattern of dry and seasonable weather continues early next week before the warmth and humidity both try to come back later next week and perhaps into the following weekend. If you are on vacation this coming week, you picked a good one! Beyond this, we are getting into July, and that’s our hottest month of the year, so we should expect some heat to make an appearance.

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Follow Dave Epstein on Twitter @growingwisdom.