Trick or treaters may need to have extra layers on under their costumes when they start stalking about the neighborhoods for candy, as they will be greeted with highs only in the upper 40s in the Boston region.

Parts of western Massachusetts could even see snow overnight on Halloween, according to Alan Dunham, a meteorologist with the NWS.

“There is just a chance of some snow Tuesday night and Wednesday out in the Berkshires,” Dunham said.

To start the week, “rain is likely,” Dunham said, and the weather service predicts an 80% chance of showers for Boston from Sunday evening until early Monday afternoon.

Clouds will clear by Monday night, but temperatures won’t make it out of the low-50s through the day and will fall into the mid-30s heading into Tuesday.

On Tuesday, it will be cold despite “some sunny skies,” Dunham said. There is a slight chance of showers late in the evening, but well after the candy has been collected and the sugar has worn off.

Low temperatures overnight Tuesday are expected to be just above freezing, according to the NWS.

The chance of rain jumps to 50% by Wednesday due to a “little pressure well offshore,” Dunham said, but otherwise the day should be mostly sunny throughout the region. Temperatures Wednesday will stay in the mid-40s but fall below freezing overnight, according to the weather service.

Rain clears by Thursday, Dunham said, when the temperatures are expected to return to around 50 degrees under sunny skies. Lows will drop into the 30s overnight but should stay above freezing.

Slightly warmer weather returns for Friday, when it will be mostly sunny and in the mid-50s through much of the region. Overnight temperatures could stay close to 40 degrees.

A dry weekend is expected, Dunham said, with temperatures in the upper 50’s both Saturday and Sunday, but some clouds.

Not every neighborhood in Boston holds its trick or treating on Halloween night. For a long list of spooky offerings available in the city this week, visit https://www.boston.gov/news/bcyf-halloween-activities.

Sounds just like New England.

After temps soared to record-highs in the 80s on Saturday, a major cool down is coming to the region over the next few days.

The National Weather Service forecast shows that in parts of Massachusetts, temps may be cold enough for the area’s first chance of light snow of the season on Wednesday and Wednesday night.

It appears that there could be some snowfall across the higher elevations of central and western Massachusetts.

“There is only a 10-30 percent chance of snowfall over an inch,” the National Weather Service’s forecast discussion reads. “Given the time of year and the anticipated strength of the lift, snow would be most likely during the nighttime hours, especially towards the Berkshires. As previously mentioned, it is still way too early to pinpoint snowfall totals and timing for specific locations.”

Ahead of the cool down coming, people got to enjoy some unseasonably warm temps on Saturday.

Boston hit 81 degrees — tying its record-high for Oct. 28 with 1919 and 1927. Both Hartford and Providence set new records for Oct. 28; Hartford hit 84 degrees, and Providence reached 82 degrees.

ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) — Survivors of a Category 5 storm that killed at least 27 people as it devastated Mexico’s resort city of Acapulco spent Thursday searching for acquaintances and necessities and hoping that aid would come quickly in the wake of Hurricane Otis.

The Pacific storm had strengthened with shocking swiftness before slamming into the coast early Wednesday, and the Mexican government deployed around 10,000 troops to deal with the aftermath. But equipment to move tons of mud and fallen trees from the streets was slow in arriving.

Resentment grew Thursday in impoverished neighborhoods as residents worried that government attention would go to repairing infrastructure for the city’s economic engine of tourism rather than helping the neediest.

Flora Contreras Santos, a housewife from a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of the city, sought help in looking for a 3-year-old girl who was swept away from her mother in a mudslide. She went from soldier to soldier trying to interest any one of them in the tragedy that occurred on her street at the height of the storm.

“The mountain came down on them. The mud took her from the mother’s arms,” Contreras said. “We need help, the mother is in bad shape and we can’t find the girl.”

Even as army bulldozers began clearing knee-deep mud from Acapulco’s main boulevards, Contreras’ pleas did not appear to move any of the soldiers to action.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador went by road Wednesday after the hurricane hit the iconic city on Mexico ‘s Pacific coast. At least four people remained missing. It was unclear if the 3-year-old girl was counted among them.

The president said Otis had toppled every power-line pole in the zone where it hit on Wednesday, leaving much of the city of 1 million without electricity. Otis turned from mild to monster in record time, and scientists were struggling to figure out how — and why they didn’t see it coming.

“The people sheltered, protected themselves and that’s why fortunately there weren’t more tragedies, loss of human life,” López Obrador said.

Acapulco’s municipal water system was down and some 500,000 homes lost power. López Obrador said that restoring power was a top priority.

Brown floodwaters extended for miles in some areas. Many residents were taking basic items from stores to survive. Others left with pricier goods, in widespread rampages through the area’s stores.

As cell phone signals began to return to some parts of the city, residents organized themselves with the help of friends and relatives living in other parts of Mexico and the United States. They joined together by neighborhood using online messaging platforms like WhatsApp. On Thursday there were some 1,000 people in 40 chats.

They shared photos of flooded neighborhoods and tips for finding cell phone signals, while asking for information about loved ones that they had not heard from. When someone joins from a neighborhood they’re asked by people outside the city to look for other residents there.

Juan Pablo Lopez, 26, had been talking to his wife when their call was cut off early Wednesday as Otis made landfall. She had returned to Acapulco to be with her family and give birth to their son a month ago. Lopez was at home in Cancun.

“I’m very worried for my newborn son,” he said.

With no information coming in Wednesday, he created an online chat with friends and family from Guerrero state, where Acapulco is the largest city. He also invited friends who had emigrated to the U.S. and asked them to add their local contacts.

“We started to cross-reference information, to share what we found, almost like a WhatApp newspaper,” Lopez said.

By Thursday afternoon, however, he still had not heard word about his wife and son.

The surreal was commonplace in the storm-wrecked city, as residents emptied the area’s stores of goods.

Ricardo Díaz, a self-employed laborer, stood Thursday with two fistfuls of live chickens he clutched by their legs. A chicken company had given him the chickens, Diaz said.

A woman nearby pushed an office chair loaded with artificial Christmas wreaths and toilet paper through the streets.

Díaz looked on in dismay as people carried armfuls of goods out of a damaged store.

“They’re going to close these stores and that hurts Acapulco,” Díaz said.

Edith Villanueva, holding her daughter, worried about what would happen to Acapulco in the long term. She worked at a cell phone store that had already been cleaned out.

“They already stole all of the phones,” she said. “It’s one thing to steal food, but people are abusing it.”

Some residents said it could take a year for Acapulco to recover; with no power, gasoline, little cell coverage and hotels wrecked by the hurricane, the task seemed impossible.

Marketing expert Antonio Esparza was one of the few optimistic ones, even as he sat trapped in the snarled traffic of the aftermath.

“This is going to improve Acapulco, because it will force the government to pay attention,” he said.

Large stores that had their merchandise taken were not restocking their shelves, meaning finding goods could become harder. But street-produce vendors were doing a brisk business in some neighborhoods as residents sought fresh food.

The once-sleek beachfront hotels in Acapulco looked like toothless, shattered hulks after the Category 5 storm blew out hundreds — possibly thousands — of windows.

Hundreds of trucks from the government electricity company arrived in Acapulco on Wednesday but downed electricity lines were in feet of mud and water.

It took nearly all day Wednesday for authorities to partially reopen the main highway connecting Acapulco to the state capital Chilpancingo and Mexico City. The vital ground link allowed dozens of emergency vehicles, personnel and trucks carrying supplies to reach the battered port.

Acapulco’s commercial and military airports were still too badly damaged to resume flights, though López Obrador said the plan was to establish an air bridge to move in resources.

Acapulco is at the foot of steep mountains. Luxury homes and slums alike cover the hillsides with views of the glistening Pacific Ocean. Once drawing Hollywood stars for its nightlife, sport fishing and cliff diving shows, the port has in recent years fallen victim to competing organized crime groups that have sunk the city into violence, driving away many international tourists.

___

AP writer María Verza in Mexico City contributed to this report. Associated Press Science Writer Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.

The report, authored by Climate Chief Melissa Hoffer’s Office of Climate Innovation and Resilience, outlines 39 actions to deal with rising global temperatures, which have reached 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and more extreme weather events across the world, including the Bay State.

“Massachusetts, like other state and local governments, must play a leading role in climate policy and implementation, spurring innovation in technology, climate finance, and resilience,” the report said.

State law requires Massachusetts to hit net zero carbon emissions by 2050, an effort that will require “substantial” investments, the report said. The costs of not making those investments “will be even greater.”

But the state, the report points out, lacks a plan to finance the investments needed to reach those goals.

Hoffer’s office recommends preparing an economic analysis of the investments needed to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, including the 2050 net zero mandate, by December 2024.

“New federal funding for climate action … can be anticipated to mobilize between 8-30% of total decarbonization investment,” according to the report. “The commonwealth should conduct economic analyses of the total investment required to meet our 2050 net zero mandate and resilience needs, and develop specific funding strategies for both.”

Massachusetts will start publishing an annual report card starting this fall to track the state’s progress towards reaching climate goals mandated by state law. A design for the report is due by Nov. 1 and the document will be published by Dec. 1, the report said.

“Because building and transportation fossil fuel combustion jointly account for 72% of the commonwealth’s emissions, efforts to reduce reliance on fossil fuels in those two sectors through electrification will feature prominently in the Climate Report Card,” the report said.

A 2022 statewide climate change assessment identified climate-drive in-migration from other regions in the United States and migrations from other areas of the world to the Northeast “as an urgent concern with a major level of consequence.”

The Northeast, the Wednesday report from Hoffer’s office said, is projected to “receive significant migration,” something the state should begin planning for immediately.

“Planning for costs in the form of additional services and additional demands for housing (which can affect regional housing markets) should begin now. There are also economic development opportunities as this migration may help reverse trends in regional population decline,” the report said.

The report also calls for a statewide plan to electrify all state-owned vehicles and equipment fleets and to consider creating a single entity or agency to coordinate the installation of charging infrastructure.

An executive order signed by former Gov. Charlie Baker called on the state fleet to consist of 5% zero emission vehicles in 2025, 20% in 2030, 75% in 2040, and 100% in 2050. Baker also required Massachusetts to have 350 electric vehicle charging stations on state property in 2025 and 500 in 2030, among other targets.

“Despite these targets, the Commonwealth is facing significant challenges in its efforts to electrify its vehicle fleet,” the Healey administration’s report said. “There are varying reasons for the challenges in electrifying the fleet, including the lack of sufficient charging infrastructure at state-owned facilities and of well-resourced operations and maintenance plans for the charging infrastructure.”

The weekend’s cold will linger into Monday morning, according to forecasters with the National Weather Service. After that, warm weather will settle over the region for the remainder of the work week.

“Basically a warming trend all week,” NWS Meteorologist Kyle Pederson told the Herald.

Pederson said the recent wind and rain will wrap overnight Sunday and, though there is a chance for the Cape and Islands to see some scattered showers, otherwise the week will be dry for most of the region.

“We’re not detecting any rain this week,” he said.

The weather service predicts temperatures will be in the 40s for early morning commuters, but by the end of the day Monday things could warm close to the 60s under partly sunny skies and a 10 mph breeze blowing in from the north.

Overnight Monday may be the coldest night of the week, Pederson said, with the higher elevation regions of the state potentially seeing freezing temperatures. Boston, because of the nearby still somewhat warm ocean water, should stay in the mid-40s overnight, he said. Further inland and across much of the Bay State the temps will likely be in the mid-30s.

On Tuesday, the winds will calm further and the sun shine through fewer clouds, with temps again pushing toward or into the 60s, Pederson said. Overnight temperatures will likely fall back into the mid-40s.

Mostly sunny skies on Wednesday could send the mercury into the 70s, especially further inland from the coast, Pederson said. The wind may also pick up slightly, according to the NWS, potentially reaching 15 mph.

Overnight temperatures heading into Thursday should stay in the low-to-mid 50s.

Thursday may be the warmest day of the week, according to the weather service, when parts of the region could see temperatures in the mid-70s under mostly sunny skies and a slight breeze. Temperatures should stay the low-to-mid 50s overnight, when more clouds are expected to roll in.

Thursday is also, according to the fall foliage map maintained by Yankee Magazine, when the majority of the Bay State will move from “early” to “mid” leaf peeping season. Parts of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont will be in “late” season approaching “peak.”

Friday could be another dry, 70-degree day, Pederson said, with comfortable dew points, very little wind, and partly a sunny sky. Overnight temps fall back into the mid-50s.

As of now, the weather service is predicting similar 70 degree temperatures on Saturday, but chillier highs in the upper 50s on Sunday.

Forecasters with the NWS station in Norton predict weather around Boston will be mostly calm and seasonal through the workweek, with just a slight chance of sporadic rain to start but potential for more through the weekend.

Monday will include some “very widely scattered showers,” according to NWS meteorologist Bryce Williams, who said a 30% chance of rain is possible through most of the day. Temps will be in the mid-40s when the commute begins before climbing toward the 60s through the day, he said. The weather service expects more of the same overnight into Tuesday, when temperatures will drop back into the mid-40s.

More scattered showers are possible Tuesday, coming mostly between the morning and afternoon commutes. NWS is again expecting a 30% chance of precipitation around Boston, Williams said. Winds aren’t expected to top 10 mph for the first two days of the week and become still-to-variable going into Tuesday evening, when a low of 44 degrees is possible.

A mostly-sunny forecast for Wednesday won’t bring the temperatures out of the lower 60s, Williams said, though with no chance of rain and a slight breeze the weather will be right where it should for this time of the year.

“It is quite seasonable. The average high is 63,” he told the Herald.

Clouds should clear overnight into Thursday under a light breeze and temperatures return to the mid-40s, according to the weather service.

Thursday will likely be the warmest rain-free day of the week, when sunny skies send the mercury into the mid-to-upper-60s through much of the region and the wind stays light. Overnight temperatures may remain in the lower 50s.

Friday morning is expected to be dry, Williams said, though by the early afternoon some of the area may be looking at rain clouds and see mid-60s temperatures. The weather service is currently forecasting a 30% chance of rain for Boston, climbing toward 60% by Friday evening, though that may change.

“There is still a lot of uncertainty about the weekend weather,” Williams said.

What isn’t likely, Williams said, is a sudden patch of warm weather. The last vestiges of summer, he said, are probably behind us.

“That summer heat is probably done. With the weather game we never say never, but as of now there are no signals pointing to any big warmth,” he said.

If you have the opportunity to take advantage of the dry warm days midweek, the Bay State is in the midst of prime apple and pumpkin picking seasons, according to the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources

To find which of the state’s over 60 P-Y-O pumpkin patches and over 80 apple orchards is nearest to you, visit https://www.mass.gov/guides/pick-your-own-farms.

It’s best to call a farm or check its social media accounts to make sure they are offering picking before driving there, according to the state, as some farmers may have had poor summer seasons after this year’s rain soaked July.

Unfortunately for local science and space lovers, New England is not in a great spot for this weekend’s alignment of the sun and moon. Also, it could be pretty cloudy with a chance for rain, so that won’t help the view either.

If you’re in the Boston-area on midday Saturday, only about 17% of the sun will be covered by the moon at the max of the eclipse. About 83% of the sun will be uncovered, meaning it will still be very bright if it’s not cloudy at the time.

“What we’re going to have in Boston is not much,” Talia Sepersky, of the Museum of Science’s Charles Hayden Planetarium, told the Herald ahead of Saturday’s event.

“On a perfectly clear day, only 17% of the sun would be covered, so you probably wouldn’t notice,” Sepersky added. “We’re not particularly well placed for this one.”

The best zone in the U.S. to view the solar eclipse will stretch from Oregon to Texas. The solar eclipse begins in Oregon at 9:13 a.m. PDT, and ends in Texas at 12:03 p.m. CDT.

Annular solar eclipses get their name from a ring of bright sunlight, or annulus. The “ring of fire” is visible around the moon during the maximum phase of this type of eclipse.

During an annular eclipse, the moon is too far from the Earth to completely obscure the sun.

“An annular eclipse occurs when the moon is at its farthest point in its orbit, and it cannot fully cover the disk of the sun,” Sepersky said.

“Even in the 100% zone, it will not be safe to look at it without appropriate eye protection because the sun won’t be fully covered,” Sepersky added.

Anyone in the Boston-area who’s trying to catch a glimpse of the astronomical event needs to get a pair of certified eclipse glasses or special binoculars/telescopes for solar eclipses.

“You cannot look at the sun without appropriate eye protection,” Sepersky said. “It’s not safe to look with sunglasses as long as any part of the sun is exposed.”

While Saturday’s eclipse won’t be much for the Boston-area and New England, a total solar eclipse will cover much more of the sun this spring.

On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse will be visible from Texas to Maine. The path of totality will cross Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, and Maine.

Unfortunately, more heavy rain could be on the way this weekend as Tropical Storm Philippe is expected to approach the region.

Boston-area meteorologists predict that a strong frontal system will move into southern New England from Friday night into Saturday. While rain amounts are still uncertain, forecasters believe that there will be steady rains from late Friday into Saturday.

“It looks like the best chance for rain will be from Saturday morning to Saturday evening,” Kyle Pederson, meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Boston office, told the Herald.

“There’s no severe weather threat with this one, but we’re keeping an eye on where some of the heavier rain will be,” he added.

There could be some blustery conditions over the weekend, with 20 mph gusts on Saturday afternoon across the region. Coastal areas could see gusts up to 30 mph.

Moderate to high rip currents will be possible along the Outer Cape, as well as the Islands.

“It won’t be the best weather on Saturday,” Pederson said.

On Wednesday, heavy rainfall from Philippe was sparking flash flooding across portions of the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. Heavy rainfall from Philippe will begin to affect Bermuda on Thursday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Tropical storm conditions are possible on Bermuda beginning Friday morning, and a Tropical Storm Watch is now in effect for the island.

“Philippe is likely to move over portions of Atlantic Canada and eastern New England, likely as a post-tropical cyclone, this weekend,” the National Hurricane Center wrote.

“Regardless of Philippe’s intensity or structure, interests in those areas should monitor the storm’s progress and be prepared for the possibility of strong winds and heavy rainfall,” the National Hurricane Center added.

After Philippe impacts the region on Saturday, rain should come to an end early on Sunday — ushering in a cooler air mass to southern New England for Sunday into early next week.

“We’re looking at a big cool down,” Pederson said.

Meteorologists are forecasting cooler than normal temps, with highs in the 50s to lower 60s for Sunday into early next week, along with low temps in the lower to mid 40s.

“It’s going to be a nice, sunny and dry week,” Kyle Pederson, a National Weather Service meteorologist, told the Herald. “We’re looking at high-pressure overhead, so we’re not expecting any rain through at least Thursday.”

Pederson said New England can expect highs in the upper 60s and low 70s to kick off the week, with mid and upper-70s highs on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday’s high will get back into the mid-to-low 70s, he said.

Pederson said the usual high for Boston around this time of year is 68 degrees and the average lows tend to be around 53 degrees. The first week of October for the region should set a trend for the month ahead, Pederson said.

“The one-month precipitation outlook for October calls for below-normal precipitation and above-normal temperatures,” he said.

Following Monday’s high of 71 degrees, Tuesday will be sunny and a high nearing 82 degrees, according to the NWS weekly outlook. The remaining highs of the work week steadily decrease from that point, with Wednesday’s high of 77, Thursday’s with 75 and Friday’s of 73.

The overnight lows for this week, he said, will start in the 60s and should remain consistent for the rest of the week as well. Dew points will also be in the 60-degree range for this week, according to Pederson, which will make it more difficult to cool down during the evening because of the excess moisture in the air.

Rain showers are expected to return to the area sometime Friday evening into early Saturday, with the dry, sunny weather ready to return either Saturday or Sunday. Friday night’s chance of precipitation is 40%, a fgure that remains consistent all day Saturday. Southern winds are anticipated to enter the region Friday night at 11 mph. Saturday will see southern winds ranging from 11-15 mph, and winds around 15 mph coming in Saturday evening.

The departing cold front should make for cooler and brisk Sunday conditions. Western winds around 15-17 mph on Sunday will be paired with a high of 63 degrees, bringing in the traditional cool fall temperatures that New Englanders expect.

A wet summer — and the fourth consecutive month of above-normal rainfall for some municipalities in Massachusetts — comes a year after the state experienced a drought that left crops damaged and officials urging residents to conserve water.

National Weather Service observations from Logan International Airport show nearly 3.5 inches of rain for September, about two-tenths an inch above normal. And expected rainfalls on Friday and Saturday will add to that total, said NWS Boston meteorologist Frank Nocera.

“But at least it looks like next week, starting Sunday, we could have a stretch of dry weather. So that’ll be welcomed,” Nocera said. “But the big takeaway is, there was a wet summer. Most places, it’s either the third or the fourth consecutive month of being above normal for rainfall.”

Nocera said Boston saw just over 10 inches of rainfall in July, more than 7 inches over normal, and nearly 6.5 inches in August, which was more than 3 inches above normal.

The first week of October is expected to show near-normal rainfall but there are signs that the second and third weeks of the month “could be trending towards a wet pattern again,” Nocera said.

“Also temperatures above normal too so kind of a warm and wet pattern is what’s in store,” Nocera said.

Major storms this month have left large parts of Massachusetts damaged — from heavy rainfalls in the western part of the state leaving crop fields flooded to flash flooding in Leominster and North Attleboro damaging houses and roads.

Further south, a potent rush-hour rainstorm swamped the New York metropolitan area on Friday, shutting down some subways and commuter railroads, flooding streets and highways, and delaying flights into LaGuardia Airport.

Up to 5 inches of rain fell in some areas overnight, and as much as 7 inches more was expected throughout the day, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday morning.

By midday, although there was a break in the downpour, New York City Mayor Eric Adams urged people to stay put if possible.

“It is not over, and I don’t want those gaps in heavy rain to give the appearance that it is over,” he said at a news briefing. He and Hochul, both Democrats, declared states of emergency.

Materials from the Associated Press were used in this report. 

While North Carolina deals with the impacts of a weakened Hurricane Ophelia’s landfall, Boston will be spared any major storms for at least the following few days, Rob Megnia, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told the Herald.

“We’re trending towards seasonal weather to start the week, with high temps in the mid to upper 60s through Wednesday, although we may be a little on the wet side tomorrow, especially the further south of I-90 you go,” he said.

Monday morning could come with a bit of rain as a result of the southern hurricane, Megnia said, when the temperatures are expected to stay around 60 degrees. Winds out of the northeast could reach 15 mph, according to NWS.

“That’s about it. We don’t really have any significant rain chances in the forecast,” he said.

Monday evening, according to the weather service, temperatures will fall into the mid-50s and the chance of precipitation will fall to 20%.

Tuesday morning there is a slight chance of showers before 9 a.m. before the day turns partly sunny. Despite the sun, temperatures might not make it out of the 50s while the wind continues from the northeast at 15 mph.

Clouds roll in overnight Tuesday, when the temperature will drop into the upper 40s.

Weather on Wednesday will be mostly sunny, though again the sun doesn’t bring the temperatures up too much and thermometers will likely top out at 62 degrees. A less than 10 mph wind will shift to the east by midday, according to the NWS.

Temps overnight Wednesday will fall as low as 52 degrees.

The morning cold will mostly persist through the day Thursday, when partly sunny skies only bring the temperature up to the low 60s and a 6 to 11 mph wind blows out of the east, the weather service forecasts. Overnight temperatures will dip into the mid-50s.

A further partly sunny day should close out the work week, though again temperatures will remain seasonally stuck in the mid-60s with a light breeze from east.

Friday evening could bring some rain, though the NWS is forecasting just a 30% chance of precipitation for the Boston area.

Weekend weather could carry the same chance of precipitation, with more high temperatures in the middle-60s, Megnia said.

The region will not have to deal with more impacts from Ophelia past Monday, according to Megnia. The storm was downgraded from a hurricane strength storm to a tropical depression over the weekend.

The storm came ashore near Emerald Isle with near-hurricane-strength winds of 70 mph, but winds weakened as it traveled north with the center of the storm crossing into Virginia by evening, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Ophelia is expected to sweep northeast Sunday along the mid-Atlantic coast to New Jersey.

Videos from social media showed riverfront communities in North Carolina such as New Bern, Belhaven and Washington experiencing significant flooding. The extent of the damage was not immediately clear.

Even before it made landfall, the storm proved treacherous enough that five people had to be rescued by the Coast Guard on Friday night from a boat anchored down near the North Carolina coastline.

Ophelia promises a weekend of windy conditions and heavy rain as it churns up the East Coast, with the storm moving north at about 12 mph as of Saturday evening. Parts of North Carolina and Virginia can expect up to 5 inches of rain, with 1 to 3 inches forecast in the rest of the mid-Atlantic region through Sunday. Some New Jersey shore communities, including Sea Isle City, had already experienced flooding Saturday.

Philippe Papin, a hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center, said the primary risk of the storm system over the next couple of days will be the threat of floods from the rain.

“There have been tropical storm-force winds observed, but those are starting to gradually subside as the system moves further inland,” Papin said in an interview early Saturday. “However, there is a significant flooding rainfall threat for a large portion of eastern North Carolina into southern Virginia over the next 12 to 24 hours.”

Power outages spread through more states beyond North Carolina, where tens of thousands of homes and businesses remained without electricity across several eastern counties as of Saturday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports. A Duke Energy map showed scattered power outages across much of eastern North Carolina, as winds toppled tree limbs and snagged power lines.

“When you have that slow-moving storm with several inches of rain, coupled with a gust that gets to 30, 40 miles per hour, that’s enough to bring down a tree or to bring down limbs,” Duke Energy spokesperson Jeff Brooks told WTVD-TV on Saturday. “And that’s what we’ve seen in most of the areas where we’ve experienced outages.”

Brian Haines, a spokesperson for the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management, said there were also reports of downed trees, but no major road closings.

“North Carolina Emergency Management continues to monitor the situation and to work with our county partners, who are currently not reporting any resource needs,” Haines said Saturday morning.

A storm surge warning, indicating danger from rising ocean water pushed inland by Ophelia, was in effect from Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina, to Colonial Beach, Virginia.

Surges between 2 and 4 feet were forecast in some areas. A tropical storm warning was issued from Cape Fear, North Carolina, to Fenwick Island, Delaware, including parts of the Chesapeake Bay and tidal areas of the Potomac River.

Five people, including three children 10 or younger, needed the Coast Guard’s help on the water when conditions worsened Friday. They were aboard a 38-foot catamaran anchored in Lookout Bight in Cape Lookout, North Carolina, stuck in choppy water with strong winds.

According to the Coast Guard, the sailboat’s owner called them on a cellphone, prompting a nighttime rescue mission in which the crew used flares to navigate to the five people using a Coast Guard boat, then helped them aboard and left the sailboat behind. A Coast Guard helicopter lit up the path back to the station. There were no injuries reported.

At the southern tip of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Carl Cannon Jr. said he hopes he can salvage some of this weekend’s long-running Beaufort Pirate Invasion, a multiday event centering on the 1747 Spanish attack on the town. He said three ships battle it out and attack the shore, and “Blackbeard” even gets beheaded (though the real-life pirate was actually killed decades before the Spanish attack).

But the storm’s winds tore down the big tent for a banquet that was planned for Saturday, and several other tents were damaged or shredded. Cannon Jr. worries the financial hit will be significant, even with people helping clean up and offering to run online fundraisers.

“It’s been pretty devastating,” said Cannon Jr., CEO of the nonprofit running the event. “I’m just hoping that we somehow will be able to recover.”

Cannon Jr. also hopes that soggy, windy conditions will allow for pirate reenactors to clash Sunday in Beaufort.

“If I can get the boats out there, we will have an attack and the people will fight on the shore,” he said.

Elsewhere, the impact was more modest.

Aaron Montgomery, 38, said as the rain started coming down hard on Saturday, he noticed a leak in the roof of the home his family just moved into in Williamsburg, Virginia. Still, they were able to safely make the hour-long drive for his wife’s birthday to Virginia Beach, where he said the surf and wind were strong but it had stopped raining.

“No leak in a roof is insignificant, so it’s certainly something we have to deal with Monday morning,” he said.

The governors of North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland each declared a state of emergency on Friday.

It is not uncommon for one or two tropical storms, or even hurricanes, to develop right off the East Coast each year, National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan said.

“We’re right at the peak of hurricane season. We can basically have storms form anywhere across much of the Atlantic basin,” Brennan said in an interview Friday.

Scientists say climate change could result in hurricanes expanding their reach into mid-latitude regions more often, making storms like this month’s Hurricane Lee more common.

One study simulated tropical cyclone tracks from pre-industrial times, modern times and a future with higher emissions. It found that hurricanes would track closer to the coasts, including around Boston, New York and Virginia, and be more likely to form along the Southeast coast.

Gov. Maura Healey, on Monday, announced she would declare a state of emergency existed statewide after she toured rain damaged parts of the Commonwealth. Healey explained the declaration would allow federal funds to be freed up for disaster response. Over the weekend, Biden’s team announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would intervene in the Bay State.

“The President’s action authorizes FEMA to coordinate all disaster relief efforts to alleviate the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population and to provide appropriate assistance to save lives, to protect property, public health and safety and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe,” the agency said in a release.

Assistance will be made available for all 14 Massachusetts counties, according to FEMA.

After a storm parked itself over Leominster for hours Monday evening and drenched the small city in almost a foot of rain, Healey said an emergency declaration would “expedite our efforts to deliver relief to impacted communities and bolster our ability to access federal resources.”

Three days later, the governor would activate 50 members of the Massachusetts National Guard and declare a second state of emergency in anticipation of Hurricane Lee’s potential impacts. In doing so, Healey requested FEME issue a Pre-Disaster Emergency Declaration.

“I am declaring a state of emergency ahead of anticipated impacts from Hurricane Lee to ensure that the state can mobilize quickly to respond. I am also calling on FEMA to issue a Stafford Act declaration to free up resources that we can use to help communities with any recovery that might be necessary,” Healey said.

Over the weekend, after it became clear that Hurricane Lee had been downgraded to a tropical storm which would pass by the Bay State, Healey declared that the state of emergency had passed.

“We’re relieved that the impacts of Hurricane Lee have been minimal across Massachusetts and grateful for the public safety officials who have been responding to and preparing for severe weather and flooding throughout the week. Flooding devastated several of our communities this week and we will continue to support them as they move into the recovery phase. We thank the people of Massachusetts for their preparation and resiliency,” Healey said in a statement.

FEMA’s declaration will authorize the agency to “identify, mobilize and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Emergency protective measures, including direct federal assistance, under the public assistance program will be provided at 75% federal funding.”

E. Craig Levy, Sr., a FEMA employee, was tapped to be the Federal Coordinating Officer for federal recovery operations in Massachusetts. Levy served in the same capacity in Pennsylvania in 2021 following Hurricane Ida.

Though the work week will start with rain, Alan Dunham, a meteorologist with the NWS, told the Herald the following days will more than make up for the wet Monday commute.

“We’ll just have to get through tomorrow. It’s going to be a cloudy rainy day, pretty much all day,” Dunham said.

The NWS is forecasting the potential for showers before 5 a.m. on Monday, but by midday the chance of precipitation will reach 90% and up to three-quarters of an inch of rainfall is possible. Dunham said the rain will come with a light breeze off the ocean and that temperatures likely won’t break the 70 degree mark.

With the mercury falling into the upper 50s overnight, it’s likely showers carrying into Monday evening will taper off before midnight, when the NWS forecasts the mix of wet weather and cold could cause a patchy fog that persists into very early Tuesday morning.

Dunham said Tuesday would be “nice and sunny” with highs in the mid-70s, though there will be a “breezy northwest wind” through most of the day and clouds are possible. Temperatures overnight could fall into the mid-50s, according to the NWS.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday will all be sunny to mostly sunny, Dunham said, with high temperatures in the mid-70s with a very light breeze. Overnight lows are expected to be in the mid-50s though the end of the week.

That fairly pleasant fall-appropriate weather “will push right into Saturday,” the meteorologist said.

Though the region was mostly spared from any major weather events surrounding Hurricane Lee, which had been downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it passed by the state, the Cape experienced wind gusts reaching 60 mph and beach goers all along the coast were warned of dangerous rip currents through most the week.

Dunham said rip current warnings would be lifted Sunday evening.

“That’s basically what we were expecting, that (Lee) would pass well east of Nantucket,” he said. “Which it did.”

Saturday is the autumn equinox, when the day and night will be nearly equal in length, and the start of the fall season.

Lee made landfall later in Nova Scotia with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph, according to a 5 p.m. update from the National Hurricane Center. Strong winds, coastal flooding, and heavy rains occurred in portions of Maine and Atlantic Canada, according to the center.

But Boston and much of Massachusetts appeared to be in the relative clear as the post-tropical cyclone moved further north, National Weather Service Meteorologist Rob Megnia said. Boston experienced sub-tropical storm force winds, with an early morning gust recorded at Logan Airport reaching 38 mph.

“It’s still pretty windy and breezy but it’s really nothing more than a kind of a poor New England weather type of day today,” Megnia said Saturday. “We’ll start to see the northwest winds kind of gradually die down into this afternoon and by (Sunday) we’re going to be looking at the beautiful fall day.”

Less than a half-inch of rain fell in Boston, Megnia said, and even on Cape Cod “it’s not looking too bad,” where wind gusts reached 39 mph on Nantucket and 36 mph in Provincetown in the morning.

“It’s still pretty windy out there,” Megnia said. “But, again, nothing too crazy and we’re past the peak so things are winding down.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency approved Saturday disaster assistance for Massachusetts to help response efforts.

“The president’s action authorizes FEMA to coordinate all disaster relief efforts to alleviate the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population and to provide appropriate assistance to save lives, to protect property, public health and safety and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe,” the agency said in a Saturday statement.

A hurricane watch was discontinued for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, according to the hurricane center. A tropical storm warning was also ended for areas south of Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

“A northward motion but at a slower forward speed is expected later (Saturday), and the center of Lee is forecast to reach western Nova Scotia around midday,” the center said. “Lee is then expected to turn toward the north-northeast and northeast and move across Atlantic Canada tonight and Sunday.”

Tropical storm warnings were still in effect for areas north of Cape Elizabeth to the U.S.-Canada border., New Brunswick from the U.S.-Canada border to Belledune, including Grand Manan Island, all of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and the Magdalen Islands.

Three cruise ships — Aurora, Norwegian Pearl, and Caribbean Princess — took shelter earlier in the day at the Black Falcon Cruise Terminal in Boston, according to a Massachusetts Port Authority spokesperson.

Healey declared a state of emergency Friday in advance of the storm, activating up to 50 members of the Massachusetts National Guard. Healey lifted the emergency, along with a separate one declared earlier in the week in response to floods in Leominster and North Attleboro, just after noon.

“We’re relieved that the impacts of Hurricane Lee have been minimal across Massachusetts and grateful for the public safety officials who have been responding to and preparing for severe weather and flooding throughout the week,” Healey said in a statement. “Flooding devastated several of our communities this week and we will continue to support them as they move into the recovery phase.”

The latest emergency declaration includes the activation of up to 50 National Guard members to support storm preparations and response, including by operating highwater vehicles designed to deal with storm conditions.

Severe weather is not to be taken lightly, Healey said as she pointed to flooding earlier this week in Leominster and North Attleboro that wiped away roads and homes. Healey has declared a state of emergency in response to the floods there and a separate one last month in response to an emergency shelter crisis.

“Flooding, wind damage, downed trees, tree limbs, all of these things create real hazards and problems for people. We’ve also seen power outages. So we are mobilizing and have mobilized,” Healey said at the State House. “I declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts. I do this because it’s necessary to get assets in place before anything lands here in Massachusetts. It puts us in the best possible position to be able to respond in the ways that we need.”

Massachusetts joins Maine in declaring a state of emergency ahead of the storm. Healey also asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to issue a pre-disaster emergency declaration, which was granted in the Pine Tree State and allows for protective measures ahead of a disaster.

Tropical storm warnings were in effect early Friday afternoon for all of Massachusetts’ coastline, nearly all of Cape Cod, and Boston. Tropical conditions were possible Friday afternoon and into the evening with gusts up to 40 knots, according to the National Weather Service.

Hurricane Lee, a Category 1 storm, was forecasted to pass close to 200 miles off the east coast of Cape Cod but its wide wind field was expected to bring strong gusts to Massachusetts, said National Weather Service Boston Meteorologist Rob Megnia.

“We are going to be experiencing some tropical storm force winds, especially on Cape Cod and the Islands, they’re gonna catch the brunt of it. Along the east coast of Massachusetts, though, we’ll probably get to some tropical storm force wind gusts there as well,” Megnia told the Herald.

Megnia said Massachusetts will likely experience peak storm conditions between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m. Saturday with noticeable improvements into the early afternoon.

“It’s going to be in and out pretty quick,” Megnia said.

Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency Director Dawn Brantley said even though the forecast calls for moderate impacts in the state from Hurricane Lee, a series of significant rain events with smaller amounts can impact infrastructure and people’s lives.

“Having an emergency declaration in place pre-event allows the commonwealth to mobilize resources and personnel. to prepare to request direct federal assistance through FEMA, and allows MEMA the ability to take the necessary actions to respond,” Brantley said at the State House.

Hurricane Lee is expected to make landfall in Maine on Saturday, where the National Hurricane Center has issued a tropical storm warning. As of 11 a.m. Friday, the storm was north-northeast at 18 miles per hour, according to the center.

Hurricane Lee was about 395 miles south-southeast of Nantucket and about 620 miles south-southwest of Halifax, Nova Scotia as of 11 a.m. Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

“Lee remains a large hurricane over the Western Atlantic,” an advisory from the center said. “Tropical storm conditions expected to begin across parts of coastal New England later this afternoon.”

The storm is expected to make landfall in Boston late Friday night, with peak conditions seen from that time through early Saturday morning. It is expected to last through Saturday evening, Wu said at a late morning press conference.

The path of the storm “has turned slightly east,” away from the city, but remains “unpredictable,” Wu said, citing an update she received that morning from the National Weather Service.

The Weather Service posted late Thursday that “large breaking waves of 8 to 20 feet expected in the surf zone” Saturday on the Atlantic-facing beaches of Cape Cod.

“Our top priority is making sure that we are keeping all of our communities safe,” Wu said, while surrounded by the city’s emergency response chiefs, adding that she has also been in contact with both MEMA and FEMA.

“We are paying particular attention to those areas of the city that are on the coast and tend to receive the brunt of flooding whenever we do get storms like this — neighborhoods like East Boston, Charlestown, the South End and the North End,” she said.

Tropical storm conditions are also expected on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, where a tropical storm warning is in effect. There is the potential for “life-threatening” storm surge flooding in portions of southeastern Massachusetts, including Cape Cod and Nantucket, the National Hurricane Center said in an 11 a.m. update.

While current projections show that Hurricane Lee “will not be over Boston,” the city will be experiencing “higher than average rain and winds,” according to Mariama White-Hammond, the city’s chief of energy, environment and open space.

Boston is expected to receive up to 4 inches of rain, with winds gusting at roughly 30 mph through the duration of the storm, Wu said.

“It’s fair to say that Saturday is probably not going to be the greatest day that you have to enjoy the outdoors,” Chief of Emergency Management Shumeane Benford said.

Benford said residents should keep flashlights and extra batteries on hand in the event of a power outage, but discouraged the use of candles and urged people not to drive through standing water.

Fire Commissioner Paul Burke said firefighters are trained in water rescue, and the department will have extra manpower on hand for the two-day storm.

“We have two water rescue vehicles that are going to be stationed in the risky areas, so they can take people out if they have to,” Burke said, referring to cars that may become stuck in the flooding.

Burke said rescue companies also have “zodiacs,” or inflatable boats that will be used in the event that people need to be saved from their homes.

He warned against touching downed power lines, saying that anyone who touches a live wire is “in a lot of trouble.”

Residents are asked to help the city keep streets and sidewalks open during the storm, by reporting downed power lines, trees and branches with 311, and keeping catch basins clear. The city won’t respond to fallen trees or power lines on private property, officials said.

Given current projections, public schools will remain open and trash pickup will occur without disruption on Friday. Some city events will be canceled on Saturday, but the open streets event is still on for Sunday, Wu said.

The city has been in contact with Pine Street Inn and other partners to ensure residents experiencing homelessness will have shelter during the storm. The Boston Public Library and BCYF community centers will be open to give residents a safe gathering place to ride out the worst conditions, the mayor said.

“We have been lucky not to have our big storm hit quite yet, but we should use all of these instances to get prepared,” White-Hammond said. “If you’re a person that has the resources and the ability to prepare, you should do so, because we want the resources of our first responders to focus on folks with mobility challenges, to focus on people who have severe health challenges.”

The National Hurricane Center has issued a tropical storm watch for a large area of coastal New England, with Lee bringing a potential “life-threatening” storm surge to the region.

At minimum, residents across Eastern Massachusetts should be treating Hurricane Lee like a “moderate nor’easter,” according to Matthew Belk, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Boston

Speaking with the Herald Wednesday evening, Belk said sustained winds should arrive in Greater Boston Friday night into Saturday, with gusts hitting 40 to 50 miles per hour for areas around Boston.

The further south you get, the stronger the winds will be, with gusts potentially reaching hurricane force across the Cape and Islands, Belk said, explaining it’s still “impossible” to know when effects from the hurricane will be felt and for how long they will impact the region.

“Lee is a very large storm, and hurricanes are not points,” he said. “Even though the path is well offshore, the size of Lee could certainly extend westward back into Eastern Massachusetts.”

The National Hurricane Center forecast the center of Lee to pass west of Bermuda Thursday and Thursday night before approaching the coast of New England and Atlantic Canada Friday and Saturday.

“Maximum sustained winds are near 105 mph with higher gusts,” the Hurricane Center said in a Wednesday evening update. “Slow weakening is forecast during the next few days, however, Lee is likely to remain a large and dangerous hurricane into the weekend.”

Variables — Lee’s path and size — are still in play to know what conditions will be like exactly, especially in terms of rainfall, said Belk, who estimated the storm could dump 1 to 2 inches across the waterlogged region.

“Fortunately, given the current expected track of Lee, the heaviest rain should be offshore. Would it be surprising if a few locations took a little bit more rain and got up to three inches? No.”

Gov. Maura Healey said Wednesday that while there aren’t plans to call up the National Guard, the state’s emergency management agency is keeping a close eye on the weather and is prepared to offer assistance.

She said the state is monitoring the conditions of dams in many communities and urged residents to take seriously any warnings of potential flooding and to stay off the roads when ordered.

“Something that looks pretty minor can, just within a couple of hours, turn into something very serious, potentially deadly and very, very destructive,” Healey said.

The governor issued a state of emergency Tuesday night following the “catastrophic flash flooding and property damage” that turned parking lots at several businesses in Leominster and North Attleboro into lakes.

Up to 300 people were evacuated by Tuesday morning in the city, which has not seen such widespread damage since a 1936 hurricane, Mayor Dean Mazzarella said . Most buildings downtown flooded and some collapsed. Schools were closed Tuesday and Wednesday but will reopen Thursday, he said.

“The ground is saturated. It can’t take in anymore,” Mazzarella said at a Wednesday news conference.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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  Heavy rains opened Pleasant St. and bared the foundation of this house at the intersection of Colburn St. in Leominster. September 12, 2023 (Staff Photo Chris Christo/Boston Herald)

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  Heavy rains opened Pleasant Street in Leominster. (Staff Photo Chris Christo/Boston Herald)

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  Officials including Gov. Healey and Phillip Eng look over where heavy rains washed away the ground under MBTA tracks off Route 13 near Hamilton St. in Leominster. September 12, 2023 (Staff Photo Chris Christo/Boston Herald)

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  Keolis workers measure MBTA tracks where heavy rains washed away the ground off Route 13 near Hamilton St. in Leominster. September 12, 2023 (Staff Photo Chris Christo/Boston Herald)

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  Heavy rains washed out the ground under MBTA tracks and buried a property with earth and debris on Hamilton St. off Route 13 in Leominster. September 12, 2023 (Staff Photo Chris Christo/Boston Herald)

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  Heavy rains washed out the ground under MBTA tracks and buried a property with earth and debris on Hamilton St. off Route 13 in Leominster. September 12, 2023 (Staff Photo Chris Christo/Boston Herald)

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  Heavy rains washed out the ground under MBTA tracks and buried a property with earth and debris on Hamilton St. off Route 13 in Leominster. September 12, 2023 (Staff Photo Chris Christo/Boston Herald)

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  Gov.Maura Healey and Phillip Eng listen to Leominster Mayor Dean Mazzarella discuss the damage caused by heavy rains. in Leominster. September 12, 2023 (Staff Photo Chris Christo/Boston Herald)

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  Keolis workers confer MBTA tracks where heavy rains washed away the ground under MBTA tracks off Route 13 near Hamilton St. in Leominster. September 12, 2023 (Staff Photo Chris Christo/Boston Herald)

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  Heavy rains caused this building to collapse on Spruce St. Leominster. September 12, 2023 (Staff Photo Chris Christo/Boston Herald)

An important email appeared in the inboxes of a small group of health care workers north of Boston as this summer started. It warned that local temperatures were rising into the 80s.

An 80-plus-degree day is not sizzling by Phoenix standards. Even in Boston, it wasn’t high enough to trigger an official heat warning for the wider public.

But research has shown that those temperatures, coming so early in June, would likely drive up the number of heat-related hospital visits and deaths across the Boston region.

The targeted email alert the doctors and nurses at Cambridge Health Alliance in Somerville, Massachusetts, got that day is part of a pilot project run by the nonprofit Climate Central and Harvard University’s Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment, known as C-CHANGE.

Medical clinicians based at 12 community-based clinics in seven states — California, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin — are receiving these alerts.

At each location, the first email alert of the season was triggered when local temperatures reached the 90th percentile for that community. In a suburb of Portland, Oregon, that happened on May 14 during a springtime heat wave. In Houston, that occurred in early June.

A second email alert went out when forecasts indicated the thermometer would reach the 95th percentile. For Cambridge Health Alliance primary care physician Rebecca Rogers, that second alert arrived on July 6, when the high hit 87 degrees.

The emails remind Rogers and other clinicians to focus on patients who are particularly vulnerable to heat. That includes outdoor workers, older adults, or patients with heart disease, diabetes, or kidney disease.

Other at-risk groups include youth athletes and people who can’t afford air conditioning, or who don’t have stable housing. Heat has been linked to complications during a pregnancy as well.

“Heat can be dangerous to all of us,” said Caleb Dresser, director of health care solutions at C-CHANGE. “But the impacts are incredibly uneven based on who you are, where you live, and what type of resources you have.”

The pilot program aims to remind clinicians to start talking to patients about how to protect themselves on dangerously hot days, which are happening more frequently because of climate change. Heat is already the leading cause of death in the U.S. from weather-related hazards, Dresser said. Letting clinicians know when temperatures pose a particular threat to their patients could save lives.

“What we’re trying to say is, ‘You really need to go into heat mode now,’” said Andrew Pershing, vice president for science at Climate Central, with a recognition that “it’s going to be more dangerous for folks in your community who are more stressed.”

“This is not your grandmother’s heat,” said Ashley Ward, who directs the Heat Policy Innovation Hub at Duke University. “The heat regime that we are seeing now is not what we experienced 10 or 20 years ago. So we have to accept that our environment has changed. This might very well be the coolest summer for the rest of our lives.”

The alerts bumped heat to the forefront of Rogers’ conversations with patients. She made time to ask each person whether they can cool off at home and at work.

That’s how she learned that one of her patients, Luciano Gomes, works in construction.

“If you were getting too hot at work and maybe starting to feel sick, do you know some things to look out for?” Rogers asked Gomes.

“No,” said Gomes slowly, shaking his head.

Rogers told Gomes about early signs of heat exhaustion: dizziness, weakness, or profuse sweating. She handed Gomes tip sheets she’d printed out after receiving them along with the email alerts.

They included information about how to avoid heat exhaustion and dehydration, as well as specific guidance for patients with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), dementia, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and mental health concerns.

Rogers pointed out a color chart that ranges from pale yellow to dark gold. It’s a sort of hydration barometer, based on the color of one’s urine.

“So if your pee is dark like this during the day when you’re at work,” she told Gomes, “it probably means you need to drink more water.”

Gomes nodded. “This is more than you were expecting to talk about when you came to the doctor today, I think,” she said with a laugh.

During this visit, an interpreter translated the visit and information into Portuguese for Gomes, who is from Brazil and quite familiar with heat. But he now had questions for Rogers about the best ways to stay hydrated.

“Because here I’ve been addicted to soda,” Gomes told Rogers through the interpreter. “I’m trying to watch out for that and change to sparkling water. But I don’t have much knowledge on how much I can take of it.”

“As long as it doesn’t have sugar, it’s totally good,” Rogers said.

Now Rogers creates heat mitigation plans with each of her high-risk patients. But she still has medical questions that the research doesn’t yet address. For example: If patients take medications that make them urinate more often, could that lead to dehydration when it’s hot? Should she reduce their doses during the warmest weeks or months? And, if so, by how much? Research has yielded no firm answers to those questions.

Deidre Alessio, a nurse practitioner at Cambridge Health Alliance, also has received the email alerts. She has patients who sleep on the streets or in tents and search for places to cool off during the day.

“Getting these alerts makes me realize that I need to do more homework on the cities and towns where my patients live,” she said, “and help them find transportation to a cooling center.”

Most clinics and hospitals don’t have heat alerts built into electronic medical records, don’t filter patients based on heat vulnerability, and don’t have systems in place to send heat warnings to some or all of their patients.

“I would love to see health care institutions get the resources to staff the appropriate outreach,” said Gaurab Basu, a Cambridge Health Alliance physician who co-directs the Center for Health Equity Advocacy and Education at Cambridge Health Alliance. “But hospital systems are still really strained by covid and staffing issues.”

This pilot program is an excellent start and could benefit by including pharmacists, said Kristie Ebi, founding director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the University of Washington.

Ebi has studied heat early-warning systems for 25 years. She says one problem is that too many people don’t take heat warnings seriously. In a survey of Americans who experienced heat waves in four cities, only about half of residents took precautions to avoid harm to their health.

“We need more behavioral health research,” she said, “to really understand how to motivate people who don’t perceive themselves to be at risk, to take action.”

For Ebi and other researchers, the call to action is not just to protect individual health, but to address the root cause of rising temperatures: climate change.

“We’ll be dealing with increased exposure to heat for the rest of our lives,” said Dresser. “To address the factors that put people at risk during heat waves, we have to move away from fossil fuels so that climate change doesn’t get as bad as it could.”

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This article is from a partnership that includes WBUR , NPR , and KFF Health News .

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(KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.)

©2023 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

After days of hot and sticky weather, lingering humidity levels should drop when a weak cold front enters the area bringing lower, more seasonable temperatures, Andy Nash, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told the Herald.

“Dew points — the measure of the humidity — will be going down by Wednesday,” Nash said.

Rain could continue through Wednesday, with clouds bringing “unsettled weather, showers, and thunderstorms” to the region to start the week, Nash said. Temperatures on Monday should peak in the upper 70s, with calm wind and an overnight low of around 66 degrees.

According to the Weather Service, Tuesday morning’s commute could see patches of fog develop before 9 a.m., when rain is possible but less likely. Temperatures will reach into the mid-70s before falling into the mid-60s again overnight.

The chance of thunderstorms and heavy rain showers returns on Wednesday and persists for most of the day, when there is a 70% chance of precipitation and a high near 75 degrees. Rain could continue to fall overnight Wednesday, when temperatures are forecast to dip into the low-60s, with a 70% chance of precipitation carrying through to Thursday morning.

Showers are possible to start the day Thursday, but wet weather should clear by noon, when temperatures will peak in the mid-70s with a cool westerly breeze. Thursday overnight temperatures will fall into the upper 50s, according to the weather service.

Friday may be the lone sunny day of the week, when the NWS predicts clouds will clear for most of the day while temperatures stay in the low-to-mid 70s. Temps overnight will again dip into the 50s.

Saturday and Sunday are currently forecast to be mostly sunny and dry with temps in the mid-70s, though Nash said by midweek the track of Hurricane Lee could change and force an update to their modeling.

“We’ll probably have a better idea come Tuesday or so. The hurricane is north of the Caribbean and heading northwest now. It’s slowing down east of the Bahamas and starting to turn north. When that happens, that will really tell us with more confidence where it’s headed,” he said.

Even if Lee, which on Sunday re-strengthened into a Category 3 storm, doesn’t make landfall in New England, it will still cause dangerous surf conditions and rip tides along the shore midweek, Nash said.

The last hurricane strength storm to make landfall in Massachusetts was Hurricane Bob in 1991, according to Nash. That shouldn’t be taken to mean that the region is generally safe from strong storms, the meteorologist cautioned, just that we’ve been lucky over the last 30 years or so.

“If you look at the historical data, the region sees a hurricane make landfall once every 10 to 15 years or so on average,” he said.

National Grid officials announced that power was restored to more than 60,000 residents throughout the state as of Sunday morning. By Sunday evening, approximately 12,000 customers remained without power. The majority of those were in Andover and North Andover, according to an outage map maintained by the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.

The North Andover Town’s online announcement page included an update Sunday, saying they are working with National Grid and that the area outages were expected to be resolved Sunday. Officials also mentioned the Red Cross shelter at the North Andover Senior Center remains open for those in need.

The Town of Andover advised residents that The Robb Center, used for a cooling and charging location, remained open for residents to use until 10 p.m. and will reopen Monday at 9 a.m. About  35% of Andover residents remained without power as of Sunday afternoon, according to the MEMA map.

“We appreciate the continued cooperation and patience of Andover residents as the community continues to recover from this unprecedented storm,” town officials said in an online notification.

Friday’s thunderstorms came with wind gusts exceeding 55 mph along with damages to trees and power lines. National Grid said the company assigned more than 250 damage assessment crews in Massachusetts alone, as the storms impacted thousands of customers in New England.

Lightning from another wave of storms Saturday severely injured a 31-year-old woman walking her dog at Savin Hill Beach. The woman was transported to Boston Medical Center, currently in critical condition, according to officials.

While crews have been dispatched since Friday, power officials said, they have and will continue to work when the conditions are safe to do so.

“Our crews have been working around the clock since Friday afternoon, and we will remain on the job as long as it takes to restore service to every customer,” Tim Moore, vice president for National Grid’s Electric Operations of New England, said in a statement.  “We understand, however, that success is measured by each customer having service and we will not slow down until that has been accomplished.”

Thunderstorms hit the region hard on Friday and forecasts called for more rain and heavy wind Sunday and Monday. More than 40,000 customers in the six-state region were without power after Friday’s storms.

The majority of those customers were in Massachusetts, where more than 25,000 customers lacked power in Essex County, which borders New Hampshire. The state had about 35,000 customers without power in total.

More than 3,000 customers also lacked power in Maine and Vermont. Power authorities in New England said they were working to restore power, and communities were also responding to wind damage that toppled utility poles and damaged homes and vehicles in some areas.

The storm resulted in wind gusts of more than 55 mph as well as heavy rainfall, tree damage and downed power lines, said National Grid, an electric utility serving the Northeast.

National Grid described the storm as “fast-moving” in a statement and said the outages were especially heavy in central and northern Massachusetts. The utility said it’s communicating with local officials and first responders about the possibility of more bad weather in the coming days.

“National Grid has secured additional crews and personnel across Massachusetts to repair the damage caused by this storm,” said Tim Moore, vice president for electric operations for New England. “We are currently working to assess the damage, address public safety and will be working to restore power as quickly as we safely can.”

National Grid said it was supplementing its own crews with 50 additional ones to respond to the weather damage. The crews will include forestry workers as well as damage assessors, overhead line workers and others, the utility said.

The New England states were also coping with high temperatures for September, and some schools had canceled classes or after-school activities. High temperatures were exacerbated by power outages and the lack of air conditioning. Boston opened cooling centers.

The magnitude-6.8 quake, the biggest to hit the North African country in 120 years, sent people fleeing their homes in terror and disbelief late Friday. One man said dishes and wall hangings began raining down, and people were knocked off their feet. The quake brought down walls made from stone and masonry, covering whole communities with rubble.

The devastation gripped each town along the High Atlas’ steep and winding switchbacks in similar ways: homes folding in on themselves and mothers and fathers crying as boys and helmet-clad police carried the dead through the streets.

Remote villages like those in the drought-stricken Ouargane Valley were largely cut off from the world when they lost electricity and cellphone service. By midday, people were outside mourning neighbors, surveying the damage on their camera phones and telling one another “May God save us.”

Hamid Idsalah, a 72-year-old mountain guide, said he and many others remained alive but had little future to look forward to. That was true in the short-term — with remnants of his kitchen reduced to dust — and in the long-term — where he and many others lack the financial means to rebound.

“I can’t reconstruct my home. I don’t know what I’ll do. Still, I’m alive, so I’ll wait,” he said as he walked through the desert oasis town overlooking red rock hills, packs of goats and a glistening salt lake. “I feel heartsick.”

In historic Marrakech, people could be seen on state TV clustering in the streets , afraid to go back inside buildings that might still be unstable. The city’s famous Koutoubia Mosque, built in the 12th century, was damaged, but the extent was not immediately clear. Its 226-foot minaret is known as the “roof of Marrakech.” Moroccans also posted videos showing damage to parts of the famous red walls that surround the old city, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

At least 2,012 people died in the quake, mostly in Marrakech and five provinces near the epicenter, Morocco’s Interior Ministry reported Saturday night. At least another 2,059 people were injured — 1,404 critically — the ministry said.

“The problem is that where destructive earthquakes are rare, buildings are simply not constructed robustly enough to cope with strong ground shaking, so many collapse, resulting in high casualties,” said Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London.

In a sign of the huge scale of the disaster, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI ordered the armed forces to mobilize specialized search and rescue teams and a surgical field hospital, according to a statement from the military.

The king said he would visit the hardest hit area Saturday, but despite an outpouring of offers of help from around the world, the Moroccan government had not formally asked for assistance, a step required before outside rescue crews could deploy.

The epicenter of Friday’s tremor was near the town of Ighil in Al Haouz Province, roughly 44 miles south of Marrakech. Al Haouz is known for scenic villages and valleys tucked in the High Atlas Mountains.

Police, emergency vehicles and people fleeing in shared taxis spent hours traversing unpaved roads through the High Atlas in stop-and-go traffic, often exiting their cars to help clear giant boulders from routes known to be rugged and difficult long before Friday’s earthquake. In Ijjoukak, a village in the area surrounding Toubkal, North Africa’s tallest peak, residents estimated nearly 200 buildings had been leveled.

Couch cushions, electric cords and grapes were strewn in giant piles of rubble alongside dead sheep, houseplants and doors wedged between boulders. Relatives from the town and those who had driven from major cities cried while they wondered who to call as they reckoned with the aftermath and a lack of food and water.

“It felt like a bomb went off,” 34-year-old Mohamed Messi said.

Morocco will observe three days of national mourning with flags at half-staff on all public facilities, the official news agency MAP reported.

World leaders offered to send in aid or rescue crews as condolences poured in from countries in Europe, the Middle East and the Group of 20 summit in India. The president of Turkey, which lost tens of thousands of people in a massive earthquake earlier this year, was among those proposing assistance. France and Germany, with large populations of people of Moroccan origin, also offered to help, and the leaders of both Ukraine and Russia expressed support for Moroccans.

In an exceptional move, neighboring rival Algeria offered to open its airspace to allow eventual humanitarian aid or medical evacuation flights to travel to and from Morocco. Algeria closed the airspace when its government severed diplomatic ties with Morocco in 2021 over a series of issues. The countries have a decadeslong dispute involving the territory of Western Sahara.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 when it hit at 11:11 p.m., with shaking that lasted several seconds. The U.S. agency reported a magnitude 4.9 aftershock hit 19 minutes later. The collision of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates occurred at a relatively shallow depth, which makes a quake more dangerous.

Earthquakes are relatively rare in North Africa. Lahcen Mhanni, Head of the Seismic Monitoring and Warning Department at the National Institute of Geophysics, told 2M TV that the earthquake was the strongest ever recorded in the region.

In 1960, a magnitude 5.8 tremor struck near the Moroccan city of Agadir and caused thousands of deaths. That quake prompted changes in construction rules in Morocco, but many buildings, especially rural homes, are not built to withstand such tremors.

In 2004, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake near the Mediterranean coastal city of Al Hoceima left more than 600 dead.

Friday’s quake was felt as far away as Portugal and Algeria, according to the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere and Algeria’s Civil Defense agency, which oversees emergency response.

The category 4 hurricane, capable of generating waves of up to 15 feet, charged through warm Atlantic waters on Friday and threatened to unleash heavy swells across the northeast Caribbean. It became the season’s first Category 5 storm before weakening slightly.

Two models — the European and American — project Lee either hitting Boston directly, or scraping along the coast of Cape Cod before heading into the Canadian Maritimes. Heavy rains and a deadly storm surge would be present in both scenarios.

But residents across Greater Boston and New England should not be alarmed, as of now, said Bryce Williams, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Boston office.

“I can tell you that we don’t know if it’s going to impact New England at this point. It’s much too far out. It’s almost eight days out,” Williams told the Herald on Friday. “It’s much too far for people to be particularly worried about it. But it is something to keep an eye on as it gets closer.”

Local meteorologists should have a better idea by Monday on whether Lee will impact the region, but even then, it may be still too early to know for sure given the projected path wouldn’t be coming our way until at least the end of next week, Williams said.

The National Hurricane Center said dangerous surf and rip currents were forecast for most of the U.S. East Coast starting Sunday, but it did not have further details of what else the storm might unleash.

Currently a Category 4 hurricane, Lee is not expected to make landfall, but meteorologists warned it would generate dangerous waves of up to 15 feet across the northern coast of Puerto Rico and other nearby islands. While Lee is on a path that would take it a couple hundred miles northeast of the Caribbean, tropical storm conditions are not forecast for the region.

Mark Robinson, a storm hunter for the Weather Network, tweeted Friday that Lee appeared to recover from a shear that degraded it earlier in the day.

“The storm is becoming more symmetrical now,” Robinson said. “Keep in mind that if it does make landfall in New England or the Maritimes, it won’t be anything even close to this strong.”

Looks like #Lee is recovering from the shear that degraded it earlier today. The storm is becoming more symmetrical now. Keep in mind that if it does make landfall in New England or the Maritimes, it won’t be anything even close to this strong. pic.twitter.com/5AklgwJu4X

— Mark Robinson (@StormhunterTWN) September 8, 2023

Lee is expected to strengthen and reach winds of up to 180 mph (290 kph). Only seven Atlantic hurricanes have had winds of that magnitude since 1966, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.

The National Hurricane Center said dangerous surf and deadly rip currents would likely hit the northern Leeward Islands later Friday. They would spread to Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas and Bermuda over the weekend.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday was given the hurricane’s latest trajectory and details of preparations underway by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency.

About 4.5 million meals and nearly 8.9 million liters of water are available in Puerto Rico, and another roughly 250,000 meals and more than 600,000 liters of water in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the agency said Friday.

FEMA said it has also deployed rapid response teams to both U.S. territories as a precaution.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Hurricane Lee strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph on Thursday while the storm remained far east of Puerto Rico. Forecasters were predicting that Lee would become a major hurricane by Thursday night.

Lee is expected to gain strength to a monster Category 5 hurricane, which would be the first storm to hit that highest hurricane intensity level this year.

“It looks like Lee is rapidly strengthening right now, and we expect it to continue to quickly strengthen,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist John Feerick told the Herald on Thursday.

“It’s difficult to say this far out, but there’s potential for this to impact the East Coast from the Carolinas up into New England as we head into late next week,” he added. “It appears that the more likely scenario is it misses to the east, but this is something the East Coast will need to keep a close eye on.”

The key to Lee’s potential East Coast impact will be the positioning of the jet stream. Models have the jet stream closer to the East Coast, which would help steer Lee out to sea.

But if the jet stream stays out closer to the Midwest, Lee would have more forward momentum and could come a lot closer to the East Coast, Feerick said.

“It’s nothing to panic about just yet, but it’s something to continue to watch over the next several days,” he added.

If Lee stays out to sea, the New England coast could still see dangerous surf and rip currents.

“Even if Lee were to curve out to sea and miss southern New England, a potential impact could be rough surf and rip currents,” said Torry Gaucher, meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Boston office. “It’s definitely something you’ll want to keep checking in on over the next several days.”

Now is a good time to review any hurricane preparedness plans, he added.

Lee’s core was expected to move north of the northern Leeward Islands, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico this weekend and early next week.

Swells generated by Lee will likely reach portions of the Lesser Antilles on Friday, and the British and U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Bahamas, and Bermuda this weekend. These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.

“Many of the models are calling for remarkable rates of intensification, beyond rates normally seen with model forecasts,” the National Hurricane Center wrote.

NHC added, “Hurricane Hunter aircraft are scheduled to investigate Lee beginning this (Thursday) evening and overnight, which should provide extremely useful information about Lee’s intensity during the coming days.”

National Weather Service meteorologists were warning residents about the risk of heat exhaustion and heat illnesses amid this early September blast of brutally hot weather. The “heat advisory” remains in effect through Friday evening.

“Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors,” the National Weather Service wrote in its advisory. “Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances.

“Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside,” NWS added. “When possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when possible.”

The oppressive heat will continue on Friday, but it thankfully won’t be as brutal as Thursday.

“In general, the heat is peaking in most of Massachusetts on Thursday, and it will be slightly less hot on Friday, but still oppressively hot in areas,” said Torry Gaucher, meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Boston office.

Temps will then drop over the weekend into the 80s on Saturday and upper 70s on Sunday.

In Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu declared a “heat emergency” through Friday. Cooling centers will be open at 15 Boston Centers for Youth and Families (BCYF) community centers from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Also, 64 splash pads will be open at parks and playgrounds throughout the city. Boston Public Library locations are also available for residents to seek relief from the heat.

With the school year for Boston Public Schools beginning on Thursday, BPS was encouraging students and their families to prepare for hot weather by staying well hydrated and dressing appropriately. Most BPS schools have air conditioning. The city was supplying water and fans to those schools that need it.

“The impacts of climate change are more palpable than ever, with extreme heat posing risk to our communities,” Wu said in a statement.

“Although extreme heat affects Bostonians of all ages, with the new school year starting, our Boston Public Schools staff will be following protocols to ensure our kids have an enjoyable, safe first week back at school,” the mayor added. “I’m grateful to our City employees who are working tirelessly to support residents, and ask residents to take precautions.”

BPS is following the MIAA guidelines for weather and will be checking in with coaches and BPS athletics regularly to ensure that students are safe, the city said.

During last summer’s heat wave, Boston EMS experienced a 15% to 20% rise in daily calls to 9-1-1.

Tropical Depression 13 has developed in the central Atlantic Ocean, and meteorologists on Tuesday said it will strengthen into a tropical storm and then Hurricane Lee.

The East Coast, along with the Caribbean and Bermuda, could be threatened by the major hurricane.

“Tropical Depression 13 forms in the Central Atlantic, forecast to become a powerful hurricane by the end of the week,” the National Hurricane Center posted on Tuesday.

“The depression is forecast to become a major hurricane by this weekend and could bring impacts to the Leeward Islands by that time,” the forecasters added. “While it is too soon to determine the location and magnitude of these possible impacts, interests in this area should monitor the progress of the depression and updates to the forecast.”

The environment around the depression appears to be ripe for strengthening. The system should be moving over record-warm waters, and as a result, it should quickly intensify.

AccuWeather forecasters are already putting the East Coast, Caribbean, Bermuda and Atlantic Canada on alert. The meteorologists predict that Hurricane Lee will become an intense Category 4 hurricane.

“This is a system we have been concerned about since late last week, as conditions are ripe for it to develop into a major hurricane and threaten the northern Caribbean, Bermuda and then perhaps even the East Coast of the United States or Atlantic Canada,” said AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter.

“By next Tuesday, the intense hurricane can be located hundreds of miles off the U.S. East Coast, in a very precarious position for potential impacts across parts of the U.S. East Coast, Bermuda or Atlantic Canada,” Porter added. “A small change in the overall steering pattern over the Eastern part of North America or the Atlantic Ocean can have major impacts on the future track of the intense hurricane.”

Meteorologists are urging residents to continue to check the hurricane’s forecast over the next week.

Parts of Massachusetts are under a “heat advisory” this week just as the kids go back to school. It could feel like close to 100 degrees, especially in western Massachusetts, as meteorologists warn that the hot temps and high humidity may spark heat illnesses.

After a cool August in comparison, summer has arrived in the final weeks of astronomical summer.

“Even with that said about August, this isn’t super atypical for this time of year,” Bill Leatham, meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Boston office, told the Herald on Monday.

“It’s not out of the question to get summerlike warmth across the region in September,” he added, also noting that the latest 90-degree day in Boston’s recorded history was on Oct. 12, 1954.

The best chance for an official heat wave — three consecutive days of 90-plus degrees — will be in western Massachusetts this week. That’s where the heat advisory is in effect through at least Wednesday night, which could be extended through Thursday.

“Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors,” the National Weather Service wrote in the heat advisory. “Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances.

“Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside,” NWS added. “When possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when possible.”

This heat and humidity comes as many student athletes hit the fields for practices and games. Thursday is expected to be the muggiest day.

Boston’s high temps should remain in the 80s because of the sea breeze helping keep the temps lower than the interior regions of the Bay State. Some coastal areas in eastern Massachusetts could stay in the upper 70s due to the sea breeze.

Later this week after the hot stretch of dry weather, it’s expected to turn unsettled late Thursday and throughout the upcoming weekend. There will be chances for showers and thunderstorms.

Leatham said, “The fortunate thing with that is we’ll lose the oppressive heat and humidity, and it’ll get cooler and more seasonable by the weekend around 80 degrees.”

Then as Labor Day weekend wraps up, summer warmth and humidity is expected to continue with some 90-degree days for the first week of meteorological fall.

Ahead of that heat, gorgeous late summer weather with seasonable temps and comfortable humidity levels was predicted for the weekend.

“It’s looking pleasant through the weekend into early next week,” Bill Leatham, meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Boston office, told the Herald on Friday.

Temps are expected to gradually increase throughout the long weekend. Saturday’s high temps should be in the upper 70s to low 80s, followed by widespread 80s on Sunday and Monday.

As people flocked to the beach for the long weekend, there was still a risk for dangerous rip currents along Cape Cod and the Islands on Friday due to the leftover from Hurricane Franklin.

But the rip current risk and waves should be much lower over the weekend.

“It’s not looking like there will be a high rip current risk, but people should still be cautious and heed any local rip current warnings at beaches,” Leatham said.

Then next week as many kids head back for the first day of school, summer warmth and humidity should continue with temps eclipsing 90 degrees.

“With increasing humidity levels, it’s not out of the question that we potentially see near heat advisory levels,” Leatham said. “People should take the typical precautions with staying cool and hydrated.”

It will unfortunately become quite muggy again with dewpoints climbing back into the upper 60s and low 70s.

After Wednesday, the forecast is more unsettled. There’s a chance that the remnants of Hurricane Idalia hit the Northeast as a rain maker. Somewhat cooler temps are expected Thursday and Friday.

With the calendar turning to September, the National Weather Service declared that this incredibly rainy summer was the second wettest meteorological summer in Boston’s recorded history.

NWS Boston recorded a whopping 20.33 inches of rain over the last three months, which is about double the normal precipitation for June, July and August.

The wettest ever meteorological summer in the city’s recorded history was in 1955 when 24.89 inches of rain fell. Leatham noted that a lot of that rain in 1955 was from two hurricanes — Connie and Diane — that impacted the region in August 1955.