Summer Solstice: See New Sudbury Long Range Forecast

SUDBURY, MA — With the 2022 summer solstice this week — the meteorological start of summer — you might be wondering whether we're going to be in for a hot, dry summer, or something else completely.

The National Weather Service on Thursday released a new set of long-range forecasts predicting trends over the next two weeks, month and three months. The Climate Prediction Center long range forecasts assign probabilities to temperature and precipitation.

In the short term over the next two weeks, rainfall will be about normal, while there's up to a 40 percent change of higher-than-usual temperatures. But the longest term three-month forecast shows both higher temperatures and higher rainfall probabilities.

More rainfall could be a good thing. The latest U.S. Drought Monitor report issued June 16 showed widespread drought conditions in the state. All of Massachusetts east of the Berkshires was experiencing "abnormally dry" conditions, while a swath of the state between southern Worcester County, Essex County and Bristol County was in a stage 1 (D1) moderate drought.

At the D1 stage, the risk of wildfires is higher, and reservoir and lake volumes might start to decline.

Longest Day

The 2022 June solstice, which marks the beginning of summer in the Northern Hemisphere and the beginning of winter in the Southern Hemisphere, occurs Tuesday at 5:14 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. It's the longest day of the year in terms of sunlight.

On Tuesday, the sun will rise at 5:10 a.m. in Sudbury and will set at8:27 p.m., meaning we’ll see more than 15 hours of daylight. It'll be all downhill from there: sunset will drop by about a minute by July 4, and will be setting around 8 p.m. by the end of July.