For inland Connecticut, today brought day two of our first heat wave of 2021. Temperatures should easily top 90 tomorrow, making it an official heat wave. The start of the week will bring the peak of the heat wave, followed by oppressively humid conditions for midweek. Relief is on the way though! By the end of the week, it looks like we return to seasonable conditions. Let's dive in.
Monday
Tomorrow looks to be the peak of the heat. The National Weather Service actually expanded the Heat Advisory to include Tolland County tomorrow. It will be hot everywhere, but the highest temperatures will be centered in the favored spots, the CT River Valley and cities where temperatures should reach the mid 90s again. Humidity will be rough tomorrow too, so be sure to take it easy outside. Remember, heat illness can hit anyone suddenly. Take precautions if you are outside or do not have air conditioning.
The heat wave is likely to continue on Tuesday, but we will start seeing a draw down in the heat. That's little consolation, actually, as we will see temperatures drop as humidity rises. Highs on Tuesday are likely to reach the low 90s, but dew points will make the humidity oppressive. Tuesday also brings the chance of thunderstorms. These look to be non-severe, as there isn't enough shear to organize storms, but some storms could be strong briefly before collapsing. It's something we'll be watching.
Wednesday
The heat wave likely ends on Wednesday, as we will watch a front slowly approach. The humidity will still be oppressive, but temperatures will likely drop a touch again, with many falling short of 90 (though not by much). More showers and thunderstorms are possible, still not expected to be severe.
Thursday-Friday
As I said at the open, the end of the week is looking much more seasonable! We should see temperatures go from the 90s to the 70s, which is our actual normal this time of year. The humidity will also be removed, so it'll be much more comfortable. Each day may feature a chance of showers, but probabilities are fairly low.
As you can see in the GFS image above, as the front sinks to our south bringing nice conditions to our region, but if you look at the end of the time frame, an area of low pressure develops along the front. There's a lot of uncertainty with that, but I do think there will be some type of low pressure lurking which could bring us some showers or rain this weekend, especially the latter portion of the weekend. For now, I'll hold off on outright calling for rain.
The Dailies
Monday: Hazy, hot, and humid. Highs in the mid to upper 90s inland and upper 80s to low 90s at the shore (exception of SE CT).
Tuesday: Partly cloudy, hot, and humid. Chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs in the upper 80s to low 90s (exception of SE CT). Chance of rain 50%.
Wednesday: Partly cloudy, hot, and humid. Chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs in the upper 80s to low 90s inland and low to mid 80s at the shore. Chance of rain 30%
Thursday: Partly cloudy and seasonable. Highs in the low to mid 70s. Chance of showers 20%.
Friday: Partly cloudy. Highs in the low to mid 70s. Chance of showers 20%.
Saturday: Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid to upper 70s.
Sunday: Partly cloudy. Highs in the mid 70s. Chance of rain 30%.
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Thank you for reading.
-DB