Cooler Temperatures to Start the Week in the Northeast

Those in the Northeast should enjoy the pleasant temperatures in the coming days as more heat is waiting to invade this corner of the country by the end of the week. Read on for more details about the fluctuating temperatures in store for the Northeast in the days ahead.

Heat Will be Back in the Cards by End of the Week in the Northeast

The hot start to July is being replaced with cooler temperatures and lower humidity levels across the Northeast early in the week. However, the noticeably cooler weather will not last long. Foreasters are warning that a patch of heat will break off from the area of high pressure building over the central U.S. and make its way into the Northeast by Thursday.

The dew point temperatures fell between 15 and 30 degrees from Sunday and into Monday. This reading is the temperature that the air must drop to for it to become saturated and produce rain. Dew point temperatures that hover in the 70s lead to humid conditions. Forecasters are calling for the dew point readings to fall into the 40s and 50s across much of the Northeast by Monday evening. This drop will create noticeably less humid air that is more indicative of what you would expect in the fall months.

The lowest dew points will be recorded in the northern Appalachians. Readings in the 30s will not be out of the realm of feasibility. The drier air will naturally lower the real feel readings to more comfortable levels.

The humidity levels are not the only measurement that will be dropping early in the week in the Northeast. Temperatures will also take a tumble. The falling mercury will be the most notable in the overnight hours. Some of the coldest areas across the interior portions of the region could see the temperatures plummet into the 40s after the sun goes down.

Looking at Tuesday's forecast, New York City will see a lovely July day complete with an abundance of sunshine and temperatures that top out in the low 80s. The Big Apple will be a bit breezy with winds coming from the east-northeast at 10 to 15 mph. Overnight lows will dip into the upper 60s.

It will be even cooler to the north in Boston. Bean Town is expecting highs to max out in the mid 70s with lows falling into the upper 50s overnight.

Slightly warmer temperatures will circulate in the interior parts of the Northeast. Syracuse, New York, will see plenty of sun and highs that climb into the upper 70s. Overnight readings will drop into the mid 50s in this part of the region.

When to Expect the Warmer Weather

As the Northeast enjoys moderate temperatures by normal July standards, it will be sizzling in the nation's heartland. A massive heat dome is taking shape over the middle of the Great Plains and to the east into the Mississippi Valley.

Forecasters are predicting that a chunk of this heat dome will break from the core of the area of high pressure and creep to the east by the middle to latter parts of the week. The result will be climbing temperatures on Thursday, Friday, and into the weekend.

For instance, after seeing temperatures top out in the low to mid 80s on Tuesday, Philadelphia will climb into the mid 90 by the end of the week. Combined with the rising humidity levels, the City of Brotherly Love will see real feel readings in the low 100s. Overnight temperatures will bottom out in the mid 70s to low 80s by the end of the week, providing little relief from the dog days of summer.

While it will be just as toasty to the south in Washington, D.C., this part of the region will also be dealing with the threat of scattered thunderstorms as the work week comes to a close. The nation's capital is forecast to see the mercury rebound into the mid 90s by Friday and Saturday. The storm threat will also pick up at this time with isolated activity a persistent threat in the afternoon and evening hours.

Friday is likely to be the warmest day of the week in New York City. The largest urban area on the East Coast will sizzle to close out the week with a high of about 96 degrees and overnight lows that barely dip below the 80-degree mark. Friday will feature mostly sunny skies; however, forecasters are warning that you should not count out the threat of a stray storm sneaking up from the south.

Cold Front Will Bring Temperatures Back Down by Sunday

The arrival of a backdoor cold front will bring down the temperatures as the weekend comes to an end. A backdoor front is used to describe the arrival of cold air from the northeast and north instead of the classic west or northwest direction. The hot and humid conditions that marked the end of the week will give way to cooler air. A shift in the jet stream will also bring down the humidity levels to more tolerable levels.

Forecasters are still working to determine how far to the west and southwest the mass of cool air will travel. There is the possibility that a southward dip in the jet stream at the same general time will send the cooler air farther to the south and the west than is typical this time of the year.

How cool will it get? Meteorologists are predicting that the mercury may fall by 20 to 40 degrees by next weekend as the back door front pushes through. Looking at the long-range forecast, temperatures will bounce around near or below the historical average more often than the times that they reach levels that are higher than usual.

The cooldown by the end of the weekend will not be as pronounced in some areas, particularly when compared to the early week push of cooler air. Going back to New York City, this part of the region will see readings hover in the mid 80s on Sunday. While this is tolerable by late July standards, it will still feel like summer.

As is typical, slightly cooler readings will circulate to the north. Boston will struggle to crack the 80-degree mark on Saturday and Sunday with clouds taking the edge off the heat even further. Winds that reach speeds of 15 mph will also provide a bit of cooling relief.

The caveat to the cooler weather pattern is that the back-and-forth nature of the competing air masses will support the development of thunderstorms at times. Every time a warmer air mass tries to push out a cooler pocket of air, you can expect storms to ignite along the boundary.

We will continue to update the chances of storms as the week progresses.

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