New England will continue to be firmly within the grip of high pressure for at least the next several days. This will bring continued dry and mainly sunny weather through the weekend. With the high pressure overhead today and tomorrow, New England will continue to see cool mornings followed by a swift recovery to warm temperatures in the afternoon. There are no chances for any meaningful precipitation in the forecast as systems are being directed well to the north of the region, around the high pressure.
The only wrinkle in this dry period will come on Friday when a subtle disturbance will try to pull a backdoor cold front into northern New England. This could trigger some spotty showers, mainly across northern New England, throughout Friday. While passing showers will be possible anywhere in New England on Friday, more areas will likely stay dry all day. Areas that do see a shower will likely see no more than a tenth of an inch of rainfall.
Along with the quiet weather, a distinct warming trend will continue for the rest of the week. The warm-up will continue to be gradual, with each day a notch warmer than the last. Widespread 80s are likely across most of New England by Friday, with many areas likely seeing an 80° reading on Thursday. This stretch of warmer weather does look to push through the weekend and into next week with many areas stringing multiple 80° days together. High pressure overhead means a weak flow, which will allow for sea breezes.
Earlier this week, the weekend was certainly looking questionable. This was primarily due to the fact that what is now Hurricane Francine would be making its way inland after making landfall in Louisiana. This hurricane will likely make landfall later today as a category two storm, bringing 3-6+ inches of rain to portions on the Gulf Coast. After that, the storm will make its way northward through the Mississippi River Valley.
The weekend isn't looking all that questionable anymore as the big ridge of high pressure that has its grip on New England will likely cause the storm to stall out well to the south of New England. The remnants of Francine will likely rain itself out over the south as it dissolves with the usual path through the northeast currently blocked. The only other feature to watch this weekend would be another backdoor cold front from a system passing well to the north, but this does not look to do much of anything with even less coverage than Friday.
Euro showing potential weather from this morning through Sunday morning. You can see Francine make landfall and eventually dissolve over the south. (You can also the quick showers over New England on Friday):
Heading into this weekend, a specific type of blocking pattern sets up for the eastern United States. This type of block is commonly known as a Rex Block (named after the meteorologist who discovered it). This block involves an area of high pressure located directly north of an area of low pressure. This setup blocks the low pressure from traveling north and west along the jet stream, which is what all storms want to do.
This type of block often leads to a flip-flop of what is expected with the weather with warmer and calmer weather in the north and cooler and unsettled weather in the south. This is what will be happening this weekend. In this case, the remnants of Francine act as the low pressure system. As with most blocking patterns, these setups can be stubborn and last for days.
1st image below: Weather map for Saturday morning showing the high-over-low Rex Block set up. 2nd image below: Temperature departure from average on Saturday, showing a pool of cooler air over the south from the system while above average warmth sticks across the north:
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