Spotty showers to bookend Northeast's weekend before next autumn chill
Snow shovels won't be needed, but some of the first mountain snowflakes of the season may fly by the middle of next week as autumn chill moves in following a mainly dry and sunny weekend for millions in the Northeast.
AccuWeather’s Paul Pastelok was live on the AccuWeather Network on Sept. 4 to discuss AccuWeather’s 2024 fall foliage forecast.
A long-awaited stretch of mainly dry conditions is in store for the Northeast into next week. Still, spotty showers are expected for the weekend ahead of a significant push of chilly air that could even lead to the first snowflakes of the season for a few locations, AccuWeather meteorologists say.
People in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, as well as Baltimore and Washington, D.C., may have forgotten what sunshine looks like. However, after a stretch of cloudy and drippy conditions that lasted for seven to 10 days in a row from parts of the central Appalachians and a portion of the mid-Atlantic, rain will be in short supply and perhaps non-existent for the same stretch coming up.
From southern New England to eastern Virginia, daily highs will be mainly in the 70s through Sunday. Over many interior places, highs are forecast to fluctuate from the 60s to the 70s from day to day.
Now that the stagnant weather pattern has ended, two cool fronts will push through the region into early next week.
The first front, with its spotty showers, will swing eastward from Friday night to Saturday. By the start of the weekend, the showers will generally be restricted to New England.
In many cases, conditions this weekend will be perfect for outdoor activities or taking a drive to enjoy the fall foliage, AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Tom Kines said.
"Most of New England has been living a charmed life weather-wise with cloudy days few and far between over the past few weeks," Kines said, "So while clouds and showers may bring a setback for part of Saturday, the second half of the weekend looks to be delightful."
Some motorists may encounter fog if heading out early in the morning to area ball games and outings.
A word of caution for those heading to the beaches to catch some rays: The surf is forecast to become rough, with an uptick in the strength and number of rip currents due to swells propagating outward from powerful Hurricane Kirk 2,000 miles away over the central Atlantic Ocean.
A second, stronger front will approach the region at the end of the weekend with spotty showers and even a thunderstorm or two. Most of the showers will be held to the eastern Great Lakes region later Sunday but can occur just about anywhere in the Appalachians and coastal Northeast on Monday.
The weather behind that front will look and feel like autumn and perhaps more like early November, rather than early October.
As the autumn air kicks into high gear from Tuesday to Wednesday, temperatures will dip to several degrees below the historical average.
Widespread nighttime lows in the 40s and 50s are in store for the Appalachians and the 60s near the coast. Air blowing downhill from the Appalachians often cancels out some of the chill in the autumn and early winter. AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures will dip into the 30s at times during the day and even the 20s over the higher ground at times when factoring in the blustery conditions.
"The change to chilly weather next week is probably going to be accompanied by gusty winds, which will likely knock a lot of the leaves off the trees in central and northern New England," Kines said.
"The action of chilly air passing over the warm waters of the Great Lakes can produce spotty lake-effect rain showers from the eastern lakes to the central and northern Appalachians during the middle days and nights of the week," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson said, "The only limiting factor to the amount of shower activity is that the air mass will be rather dry."
Mount Washington, New Hampshire, at 6,200 feet above sea level, had its first snowfall of the season back in September, but some of the more typical ridges may soon gather some flakes.
The air will get chilly enough to allow some wet snowflakes to fly over the highest terrain, mainly from 3,500 feet and above in upstate New York and northern New England.
"It is possible that some of the ridges and peaks in the Adirondack, Green and White mountains, there is a light covering of snow," AccuWeather Meteorologist Grady Gilman said. The high-elevation snow showers could happen as early as Tuesday evening and may linger as late as Wednesday night.
The risk of frost may be delayed until the chilly winds subside and lake-effect clouds depart, and that may not be until Wednesday night or Thursday night over parts of the interior Northeast. The frost could be significant enough in some areas to mark an end to the growing season.
Along much of the Atlantic coast, sunshine will prevail amidst the crisp autumn air and an active breeze for the middle days of next week.
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