NORTHAMPTON — Autumn may have officially arrived on Tuesday, but after a cold snap over the weekend, Hampshire County will experience temperatures that hark back to summer over the next few days.
The “significant fluctuation” between below-average and above-average temperatures is “sort of like a tale of two seasons,” said Kristie Smith, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Boston/Norton office.
Eearlier this week, temperatures evoked chillier autumn weather at about 10 degrees below average, while later this week, temperatures are expected to rise 4 or 5 degrees above average.
“For the short term, it looks like we’ll be experiencing these higher temperatures through the weekend,” Smith said, “sort of a second summer treat for us.”
The weather service forecasts highs of 77 or 78 Thursday through Saturday, with a high of 80 degrees in the forecast for Sunday. In contrast, some low-lying regions in western Massachusetts experienced overnight temperatures in the low 30s or upper 20s over the past few days.
While some may welcome back the warm weather after a cooldown, a drought continues across the state. This dry weather was a driving force in prompting the weather service to hoist elevated fire warnings for Massachusetts. On Tuesday, the organization issued a red flag warning, meaning that gusting winds, low relative humidity and a lack of precipitation create particularly high-risk conditions for fires to escape containment and spread at a dangerous speeds.
The weather service downgraded this risk level to an elevated fire warning on Wednesday, and will continue to evaluate conditions on a day-to-day basis. Special alerts for elevated fire risk “wouldn’t be unlikely” through Sunday, Smith said, though the weather service will not officially issue these assessments until the morning of each day.
But after more than 10 days without precipitation, some relief may be on the way early next week, Smith said, with rain in the forecast sometime between Sunday evening and Tuesday. This precipitation will not end the drought, which requires much more substantial rainfall, but “we may see some moisture come into the region for the first time in a while,” according to Smith.
Jacquelyn Voghel can be reached at jvoghel@gazettenet.com.