With November around the corner, unseasonably mild weather is making a lovely setting for the weekend’s Head of the Charles Regatta.
“High temperatures today will be nearly 15° F above normal with mostly sunny skies,” the National Weather Service tweeted Saturday morning. “A lovely October summer day! . . . wait, what?”
Saturday’s high peaked at 78 degrees, whereas normal high temperatures in late October hover around 60, National Weather Service meteorologist Lenore Correia said. Sunday is set to be a repeat, with a high near 71.
The summery weather should stick around until Tuesday.
“It’s just that we have a high-pressure [system] right over us and southwesterly winds that are taking all the warm air from the south,” Correia explained.
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Those winds were around 5 to 8 miles an hour on Saturday, expected to cap Sunday at 5 miles an hour. That’s mild enough for the Head of the Charles rowers, but the United States Rowing Association cautions that if wind speeds reach 12 miles per hour, rowing is unsafe “under any circumstances.”
However, Correia said that is unlikely to happen.
“They should be pretty light,” she said.
After the pleasant, sunny weekend, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are expected to bring showers, but the warm temperatures will remain.
Showers and fog are likely all three days, but high temperatures should remain in the high 60s and low 70s.
The rain comes on the heels of a report last week by the US Drought Monitor that abnormally dry conditions have returned to most of Massachusetts, nearly six months after the state was declared drought-free.
Another third of the state was in a moderate drought as of Tuesday, according to the report.
Correia said the rain “could help it, but it will [be] unlikely [to] solve the problem,” as rainwater after a drought typically turns into runoff.
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Friday should see a return to sunny — although slightly cooler — weather, with a predicted high around 65 degrees.
“It’s definitely going to level out into the 60s after Thursday into the weekend,” Correia said.
Here’s video from the Head of the Charles this afternoon:
We're at the Head of the Charles Regatta and the weather is beautiful. See our guide to the entire event here, and let us know if you're planning on going over there today. http://bit.ly/2yIX5EU
Posted by The Boston Globe on Saturday, October 21, 2017
Rowan Walrath can be reached at rowan.walrath@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @rowanwalrath.