Cool weekend air to end summer warmth across northeastern US

By Brett Rathbun for AccuWeather.com

With fall officially underway on Thursday across the United States, cooler weekend conditions will bring a true taste of the season to the Northeast.

While it will feel summerlike across much of the Northeast for the first two days of autumn, cooler air will arrive for the upcoming weekend.

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"A cold front will drop southward from Canada this weekend, ushering in the coolest air in months across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic," AccuWeather Meteorologist Matt Rinde said.

The coolest air mass since spring will arrive in time for the weekend.

Across portions of the interior Northeast, some locations could receive their first frost of the season Sunday night into Monday morning.

Highs on Friday will hover in the 80s F across much of the mid-Atlantic and southern New England and the 70s across southern and central New York state. Those across northern New York and New England will begin to feel the fall-like chill on Friday.

Temperatures this weekend will range between 10-15 degrees lower than the end of the workweek.

Highs will range from the 50s across northern New England to the 60s from southern New England into central and southern New York state and the 70s across the mid-Atlantic.

While the weekend will feel cool for many given the warm summer, highs will be near or slightly below average.

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Average highs range from the 60s across New York state and northern New England to the lower 70s from Pittsburgh to New York City and Boston and the upper 70s in Washington, D.C.

"A brisk northwest wind will make it feel cooler even with afternoon sunshine," Rinde said.

Highs may fail to reach 70 in New York City on Sunday. The last day New York's Central Park failed to reach 70 was on June 8.

Those heading to any football or baseball games this weekend should bring along a sweatshirt or jacket.

Many locations west of the Appalachians will miss out on the brunt of the cool air this weekend. This includes the cities of Pittsburgh and Charleston, West Virginia.

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Showers and potentially a couple of thunderstorms will accompany the push of cooler air. The best chance for wet weather along this front will be across New York state and New England on Friday, areas that are in a dire need of rain.

The cooler air will continue to press southward through the weekend and reach the Carolinas by Monday.

While it will remain fall-like for much of the upcoming workweek, a brief taste of summer may return from late September into early October.

"Temperatures should rebound across the Eastern states around late September and early October," AccuWeather Long-Range Meteorologist Paul Pastelok said.

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While summerlike air may be hard to come by over the next few weeks, it is not uncommon for summer warmth to make brief returns into mid-October.

Record-high temperatures from Boston to New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., range from the mid-80s to the lower 90s through mid-October.