Another hot day, but relief may be on way
The region is in for another hot one on Monday, with highs forecast between 90 and 95 degrees, and heat index more like 100 in the city and the rest of the region, according to Bryce Williams, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
If temperatures break 90 as expected, Monday will mark the fifth day of the current heat wave and the 16th day at or above 90 this year. From 1991 to 2020, Boston averaged 14.13 days at or above 90, but the city could see 42 days over 90 degrees by 2050 if strong action is not taken to limit climate change, a recently published University of Massachusetts Boston report found.
A cold front from Canada will roll into the region Tuesday, bringing lower temperatures in the 80s on Wednesday and down to the upper 70s on Thursday and Friday, Williams said. The average high for this time of year in Boston is about 82 degrees.
The forecast prompted Mayor Michelle Wu to extend the city’s heat emergency through Monday.
Residents are encouraged to go to one of the 16 Boston Centers for Youth and Families cooling centers spread throughout the city to get some relief. The locations are available at boston.gov/heat.
People should “drink plenty of water and limit time in the heat,” Boston EMS Chief James Hooley said in a statement. “It doesn’t matter how young or healthy you are, everyone is vulnerable to the effects of extreme temperatures.”
Sunday’s high daytime temperatures were followed by rain and thunderstorms in the evening in parts of the state, knocking out power for thousands of residents.
About 9,300 customers didn’t have electricity as of 10:46 p.m. Sunday, according to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency’s online outage map.
As of 10:45 p.m., nearly 2,800 customers in Melrose were without power, which is about 22 percent of the customers in town, according to National Grid.
Several communities reported downed trees and power lines, including Cambridge, Stoneham, Lexington, and Billerica.
Near Worcester, a passing storm left behind a rainbow, as seen in a photo shared on Twitter by the Grafton Police Department.
On Sunday afternoon, the temperature crested at 98 degrees at Logan International Airport, tying the Aug. 7 record set in 1924, according to preliminary data, said National Weather Service meteorologist Torry Gaucher.
Around the region, temperatures peaked at 97 in Lawrence, 97 in Bedford, and 95 in Plymouth on Sunday. In Worcester, the temperature hit 93 degrees, narrowly missing the Aug. 7 record of 94 set in 1924, Gaucher said.
On Saturday, the city also tied the daily record high, that one set in 2001, when the temperature reached 97 degrees, the National Weather Service said in a tweet. The record high of 93 for the date was also matched in Worcester.
Despite the heat and humidity, some 6,400 cyclists were riding in southeastern Massachusetts and the Cape over the weekend for the 43rd edition of the Pan-Mass Challenge, said Billy Starr, the bike-a-thon’s founder and executive director. Some were covering more than 100 miles.
“You want to know what a good riding day is? 72 degrees and cloudy,” said Starr, who rode the 186-mile Sturbridge to Provincetown route. “That wasn’t this weekend.”
Organizers were well prepared with water stations along the routes and volunteers constantly stressing “hydrate, hydrate, hydrate,” Starr told the Globe by phone Sunday afternoon.
About 20 participants were transferred to local hospitals, with heat stroke as the leading issue, but everyone who was hospitalized Saturday was released by the end of the day, Starr said.
“Big picture, if you’re running a major event that was well within safe norms,” he said.
Though the riders were sweating, the weekend’s heat had little effect on the challenge’s fund-raising for the Dana-Faber Cancer Institute. Starr said the organization was closing in on its $66 million goal for this year.
Showers and thunderstorms are forecast for each of the next four days but will mostly be scattered, Williams said.
The cold front, however, will bring more “widespread” thunderstorms into the region on Tuesday, some of which could be “on the stronger side,” he said.
‘Drink plenty of water and limit time in the heat.’
JAMES HOOLEY
Boston EMS chief