What. A. Day! After a cool start, abundant sunshine warmed us up into the 70s. The exception to that was right along the coastline as temps held in the 60s thanks to the onshore breezes.
We’ll continue our warming trend into the start of the workweek as highs Monday head into the low to mid 80s, although weak sea breeze may hold coastal temps into the 70s.
Heading to the beach? The water temps are running in the low to 50s, so while the sand is warm, that water is still on the chilly side! Also, be careful of rip currents along Cape Cod’s National Seashore and across the Islands.
Late Tuesday – Thursday features somewhat unsettled and muggy weather with scattered showers and thunderstorms around late Tuesday and Wednesday, and perhaps a steadier batch of rain Thursday.
Right now, I’m looking for dry weather by Friday, into next weekend with the 70s holding on.
Hurricane Season:
June 1st also marks the start of hurricane season. For the 2014 Atlantic Hurricane Season, NOAA is predicting 8-13 named storms, 3-6 of which become hurricanes, and 1-2 of those major hurricanes (cat 3 or higher). That forecast is near or a bit below the averages. Two reasons for the lower numbers: The development of El Nino, and cooler waters than in past years. Here’s the forecast summary: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2014/20140522_hurricaneoutlook_atlantic.html
The United States has now gone over 8 years without a major (cat 3 or higher) hurricane hit along it’s coastline. That’s a record. Yes, Sandy created a lot of damage, but did not have the wind speeds to qualify as a category 3. When talking about hurricanes, even category 1 storms can be powerful, as angle of approach and population density of location of landfall is very important, including for us in New England. The last direct hit from a hurricane for us was in 1991 with Hurricane Bob.
Historically, 1931 – 1960 were perilous decades along the United States coastline as 26 category 3 or higher hurricanes made landfall. http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastdec.shtml. In this time frame, New England had storms of historic proportions as well. This includes the 1938 New England Hurricane, the 1944 Great Atlantic Hurricane and 2 hurricanes within 2 weeks in 1954 as Hurricane Carol had Edna follow on her heels!
In addition to the start of hurricane season, June 1st also marks the 3rd anniversary of the tornado that tore a 39 mile path of damage from Westfield to Charlton. Winds peaked at 160mph, making it a EF3. It was on the ground for 1 hour and 10 min. http://www.erh.noaa.gov/box/sigevents/jun01_2011_summary.php.
The strongest tornado to hit Massachusetts on record was June 9th, 1953. With winds estimated at nearly 200mph, it’s the only tornado on record to produce EF5 damage in some neighborhoods. http://www.erh.noaa.gov/box/papers/WorcesterTornado53_files/WorcesterTornado53.html
So while winter weather usually steals the show around New England year to year, occasionally we do get our number called in terms of strong tornadoes or land falling hurricanes.
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