Here’s the Forecast for Memorial Day Weekend in Boston

Whether you're heading to Boston Calling or planning a backyard barbecue, nothing puts a damper on a holiday quite like crummy weather.


The Boston skyline on a cloudy day

Photo via iStock/sdominick

Updated at 7:50 a.m. on May 25

With hot, dry weather, Friday will be the kind of day made for sipping lemonade on the beach and dangling your feet in the water. Memorial Day weekend will kick off with temperatures in the upper 80s, and the heat is slated to stick around through late Saturday, at which point meteorologists predict it will break with scattered showers and thunderstorms. The forecasters over at the National Weather Service said it’s “exceptionally warm for late May,” and some areas could see the mercury top 90 degrees on Friday or Saturday.

The latter half of the holiday weekend will be cooler, with showers likely and a high of 58 degrees on Sunday. We should dry out and warm back up into the low- to mid-60s on Memorial Day, when the high in Boston is set at 67 degrees.

Previously: The weather wizards seem to have smiled on Boston for once.

Sure, it’s going to be very hot and sticky for parts of this weekend. And yes, you’d be wise to grab a sweater before heading out the door on Monday. But all told, the forecast for Memorial Day weekend is far from catastrophic, which, considering Boston’s 2018 weather record, is really all we can ask for.

Whether you’re heading out of town or heading toward the Harvard’s Athletic Complex for Boston Calling on Friday, be sure to hydrate well and apply extra sunscreen, because it’s going to be a hot one. The weekend will kick off with weather that resembles August more than May, with the National Weather Service predicting sunny skies and a high temperature near 88 degrees. The meteorologists anticipate humidity and wind will ramp up throughout the day, with gusts potentially notching around 30 miles an hour in the evening.

And while the forecasters are confident that we’re in for a dry day on Friday, things get a little dicier moving into Saturday. There’s a 40 percent chance of precipitation on Saturday night, and with thunderstorms possible, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to snag a raincoat before you hit the beach. The early part of the day, though, should be clear, and it’s going to be hot again, with temperatures predicted to reach the upper-80s.

Cooler weather moves in on Sunday and will last through the end of the holiday weekend, but there’s not a strong threat of rain, so your backyard barbecue will likely still be able to go off without a hitch. Meteorologists anticipate Sunday will be a cloudy day, with temperatures hovering in the mid- to upper-50s. Patchy fog will stick around through Monday, when the National Weather Service predicts temperatures could hit 64 degrees.