WPRI 12 Weather Forecast for 5/19/26: Hot and Humid Today

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]7 TJ, people will be using a lot of electricity probably today on their air conditioning units.

[00:00:04]>> so and probably again tomorrow. I think you can shut the air conditioners off [clears throat] though for the end of the week as it'll get much cooler. This is just a two-day thing with the heat and the humidity. We could be looking at potentially record heat. Record for today.

[00:00:20]Uh 91° set back in 2017.

[00:00:23]That seems kind of like a a low-hanging fruit there. We could easily hit that record today. I'm expecting a high around 90 this afternoon. Heat advisories in effect for inland areas.

[00:00:33]That includes Kent County, Providence County, northern Bristol County in Massachusetts. Those feels like temperatures, the heat index could be up to 96°. Not just today, but also tomorrow, especially in the afternoon into the early evening. Also have an air quality alert. Poor air quality due to uh high levels of ground-level ozone.

[00:00:51]They'll be developing late morning, like 11:00 a.m. And that continues right through the evening hours today. All over Rhode Island and northern Bristol County in Mass. Looking in Rhode Island, we're looking at blue skies right now, 67°. Dew point is at 60. We consider that to be a little muggy. Here's a look at East Providence, actually the city of Providence and we're looking at 63° dew point there. Also at 60. The humidity will start to creep up as we go through the day. Looking at upper 50s in Newport, Westerly, and Block Island. 63 in Providence. 67° in Smithfield, Taunton, Fall River, and New Bedford all in the low to mid-60s. Satellite radar picture, it's pretty quiet across southern New England. But look at these thunderstorms in the middle of the country roaring through Missouri right now.

[00:01:35]Uh tough sleeping weather out there with those uh thunderstorms. Now, this whole weather system is going to advance eastward over the next 24 hours. And we are looking at the chance for some showers and thunderstorms, some of which could be strong later tomorrow. Might actually catch a shower or thunderstorm later today. Let's take a look at it.

[00:01:52]Hour-by-hour forecast, we're dry through 3:00 p.m. Early this evening, a quick shower or thunderstorm and it'll tend to uh be out of here by 9:00 or so. Now, tomorrow we're starting off dry.

[00:02:04]Southwesterly wind helping to reinforce the humidity for tomorrow. We're dry through 3:00 p.m. but notice we got the chance for some late afternoon and evening storms tomorrow and some of them could be uh a little on the hefty side. We'll have to watch that as we go through uh lat- later tomorrow. This morning, we're looking at uh comfortable conditions for the morning hours but by noontime, we're up around 84. It'll be pretty humid.

[00:02:28]Let's pinpoint the afternoon looking at a high about 90 in downtown Providence, 91 in Federal Hill, Elmhurst section of Providence, 91, same for Olneyville. At the zoo, maybe 88 today, 90 over in EP, 88 in Rumford. Along the coastline, a little cooler down here. The place to be will be in the 70s from Westerly to Narragansett over into Newport, 60s to around 70 out on Block Island. But Wickford, 85, 93 in Woonsocket, Johnston, 91, Pascoag, Glocester, Foster into the low 90s. Southeastern Mass, we're looking at temperatures coolest down near Buzzards Bay. Westport, Dartmouth, about 79, New Bedford, 82, 78 Fall River, but 90 in Attleboro. For tonight, muggy night, warm, upper 60s to around 70°. Here's that 7-day forecast, another hot day tomorrow with the humidity as well, maybe those strong late-day thunderstorms. Much more comfortable for Thursday and Friday.

[00:03:23]Still looking at the chance for showers over the weekend, especially Saturday and Sunday.