July is running about 0.5° above normal in the Providence area with a few days to go. A hot finish should be enough to make it more than 1° warmer than normal for the month. Unless it gets hit with a heavy thunderstorm in the next few days, TF Green Airport will likely come in with slightly below normal precipitation for the month. Of course, precipitation totals over a large area in the summer can vary greatly. For instance, parts of Portsmouth and Tiverton received more than a month’s worth of rain in just a few hours this morning. The souther part of RI was still in a drought as of last week, but today’s rain certainly helped.
We expect at least 6 of the next 9 days to be 90° or hotter inland. It’s possible a few spots could reach 90° for 9 straight days beginning on Tuesday. The hottest weather this week looks like it will come on Wednesday and Thursday. Highs will be in the low to mid 90s with heat indices near or above 100° because of the humidity.
The heat will not have as much humidity this weekend into early next week, but by the end of the hot stretch, the humidity is likely to become oppressive again. After the heat breaks late next week, we could be in for an extended stretch of relatively cool and dry weather. That’s good news for anyone who detests hot/humid weather, and it also will help our bank accounts as we save some money on air conditioning. Rainfall-wise, it looks like the pattern could become active along the Eastern Seaboard sometime after August 6 through the middle of the month. In the meantime, scattered t-storms are possible Tuesday, Thursday, and Wed-Thu of next week.