


Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Boston, MA
Issued by NWS Boston, MA
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848 FXUS61 KBOX 160508 AFDBOX Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Boston/Norton MA 108 AM EDT Wed Jul 16 2025 .SYNOPSIS... Building heat and humidity continues this week, peaking tomorrow, but possibly lasting into Thursday or Friday as high pressure remains offshore. A cold front should bring showers and thunderstorms Thursday and Friday before relief from the heat arrives this weekend. && .NEAR TERM /THROUGH TODAY/... Key Messages: * Isolated (a couple?) showers or garden variety thundershowers along seabreezes thru sundown, but mainly dry weather for the vast majority of Southern New England. * Low clouds and fog return, similar to last few nights. Muggy lows upper 60s to lower 70s. Rather quiet weather continues into this evening. Mainly clear to start, but already spotted fog and stratus forming off the coast. Much like past night, this fog and stratus should reach at least the coastal plains of RI and southeast MA. A light southwest wind should limit the northward extend of this across eastern MA. Thinking the I-90 is the northernmost limit. Low clouds and fog could be farther north than that within the CT River valley. Minor tweaks to bring temperatures back in line with observed trends. Previous Discussion... Remains a very warm to hot day across Southern New England, with dewpoints in the upper 60s to low 70s leading to elevated heat indices. First-order stations (ASOS METAR reports) have reported heat indices in the mid 90s as of this writing, although the usual variation exists comparing these to mesonet sites. Although we are condtionally-unstable with sfc-based CAPEs in the 1500-2000 J/kg range, lack of forced synoptic ascent and weak capping have largely stunted any showers or thunderstorms from popping up. There has been some showers along the CT-RI south coastal seabreeze, and we could see a pop-up shower or thunderstorm develop into the Merrimack Valley too due to the seabreeze there and perhaps in/around the terrain. Other than these mesoscale- driven areas, the vast majority of Southern New England ends up being dry, so kept PoP at no worse than 20% along the interior and along the south coast. Any shower or thundershower activity which pops up will diminish after sundown. Aside from that though, the forecast for the evening should end up being pretty similar to the last few overnights. Once the sun goes down, stratus/mist re-develops and returns northward from the southern coastal waters. Warm and humid evening with lows upper 60s to lower 70s. && .SHORT TERM /TONIGHT THROUGH 6 PM THURSDAY/... 230 PM Update: Key Messages: * Hot, humid and dry Wednesday, the peak of the spell of heat and humidity. High heat indices in the upper 90s to lower 100s. * Increasing clouds, scattered passing showers with brief downpours moving in during the second half of the overnight. Hazardous weather isn`t expected. Very warm and muggy night with lows in the low to mid 70s! Details: Hot and humid weather continues into Wednesday as well, as a shortwave ridge briefly builds into Southern New England. In addition to even warmer temperatures aloft, subsidence aloft brought on by this shortwave ridge will serve to suppress any diurnal showers or thundershowers despite otherwise ample instability. Heat Advisory still remains valid, with air temps in the low to mid 90s contributing to heat indices around the upper 90s to lower 100s. Daytime seabreezes look to develop too, but these won`t do very much at all to cut into the heat and humidity. Shortwave ridge axis pulls offshore during the mid afternoon hours on Wed, and this will allow for a weak shortwave trough now over the OH Valley to slowly progress ENE through the northern mid-Atlc and Southern New England Wed evening. Increasing cloud cover from both the coastal waters and from interior western New England should keep temps warmer during the overnight with lows in the mid 70s! The shortwave trough will also bring with it a threat for showers or rumbles of thunder; with PWAT values on the rise to nearly 2" per SREF mean output, brief downpours can`t be ruled out but the coverage of showers may end up being more scattered and those that do develop should be moving along. Given those factors, we are not expected to see the really high rain rates/heavy rain footprints like we saw during the early morning hours late last week. && .LONG TERM /THURSDAY NIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY/... Key Messages: * Heat and humidity persists into Thu or Fri with increasing chances of showers/storms. * Relief arrives this weekend. We remain in hot/humid airmass through end of this week, awaiting approach of mid level short wave and fairly strong cold front which will eventually bring relief from the heat and humidity this weekend. Not seeing large timing differences with this cold front passage, which should be sometime Thursday night into Friday morning. Larger timing differences are present with this front when it likely returns back as a warm front Sunday, then moves offshore again as a cold front Monday. Still thinking Thursday is the day with the greatest risk for afternoon and evening showers and thunderstorms. Given the heat and humidity expected to be in place, a few thunderstorms could produce strong winds. The greater concern remains the possibility for downpours and localized flooding. Friday and Saturday have trended more rain-free behind the aforementioned cold front. Then had to mention more showers Sunday into Monday, although confidence in the timing is rather modest. && .AVIATION /05Z WEDNESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY/... Forecaster Confidence Levels... Low - less than 30 percent. Moderate - 30 to 60 percent. High - greater than 60 percent. High confidence. Low clouds and fog will bring IFR/LIFR conditions to much of South Coast, Cape Cod, and Islands through sunrise, possibly advancing into NE CT and most of RI/SE MA. These lower ceilings will retreat southward after sunrise leaving VFR conditions by early afternoon, but will then return around sunset and persist tonight once again with widespread IFR/LIFR into Thu morning. Otherwise, VFR with S/SW winds through tonight. Gradient remains weak enough to allow for sea breezes along E MA coast for a time later this morning into early afternoon, before S winds return. Later tonight, areas of MVFR ceilings develop with showers possible in western New England overnight, perhaps spreading into more of southern New England Thu morning. Conditions then improve again to VFR but we may see a round of showers/storms later in day, especially in western MA/western CT. KBOS Terminal...High confidence in TAF. KBDL Terminal...High confidence in TAF. Outlook /Thursday Night through Sunday/... Thursday Night: VFR. Breezy. Slight chance SHRA. Friday through Saturday: VFR. Saturday Night: VFR. Slight chance SHRA. Sunday: Mainly VFR, with local MVFR possible. Chance SHRA, slight chance TSRA. && .MARINE... Forecaster Confidence Levels... Low - less than 30 percent. Medium - 30 to 60 percent. High - greater than 60 percent. High confidence through end of the week. Sub-SCA winds and seas through Wednesday night with modest SW flow persisting. Patchy marine fog and stratus could hamper visibility for mariners tonight. Dry weather on Wednesday but we could see scattered showers develop on the waters overnight Wednesday evening/early Thursday morning along with returning marine fog. Outlook /Thursday Night through Sunday/... Thursday Night: Low risk for Small Craft Advisory winds with gusts up to 25 kt. Areas of seas approaching 5 ft. Slight chance of rain showers. Friday: Winds less than 25 kt. Areas of seas approaching 5 ft. Friday Night: Winds less than 25 kt. Seas locally approaching 5 ft. Saturday: Winds less than 25 kt. Saturday Night: Winds less than 25 kt. Slight chance of rain showers. Sunday: Winds less than 25 kt. Chance of rain showers. && .BOX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... CT...Heat Advisory until 7 PM EDT Thursday for CTZ002>004. MA...Heat Advisory until 7 PM EDT Thursday for MAZ003>007-010>021- 026. Air Quality Alert from 11 AM this morning to 11 PM EDT this evening for MAZ008>011. RI...Heat Advisory until 7 PM EDT Thursday for RIZ001>007. MARINE...None. && $$ SYNOPSIS...Belk/Loconto/FT NEAR TERM...Belk/Loconto/FT SHORT TERM...Loconto/FT LONG TERM...Belk AVIATION...JWD MARINE...Belk/Loconto/FT