A Very Active 24 Hours Of Weather Is Expected Across Western & Central Mass

Another Round Of Possible Strong To Severe Thunderstorms Is Expected A Little Later This Afternoon: A warm front is currently lifting northward through Southern New England right now. Along its boundary are some heavy showers and some thunderstorms that are beginning to develop. Two thunderstorms of concern right now are located near the New York-New Jersey border and the other now entering southwestern Connecticut. These storms are already exhibiting signs of rotation and I think this is going to be a real concern with any additional thunderstorms that develop this afternoon into this evening. I think that these thunderstorms will reach Western Mass by about the 4 to 5 pm time frame and gradually push into Central Mass by about the 7 to 8 pm time frame. Any storms that become severe will contain wind gusts of up to 60 mph, extremely heavy rainfall and very frequent lightning. Also, a couple of the most severe storms will have the potential to produce a tornado or two. Extremely Heavy Rain With The Threat For Flash Flooding Late Tonight Until Mid-Afternoon Friday: Extremely heavy rain and embedded thunderstorms associated with Tropical Storm Elsa is expected to overspread Western and Central Mass by about 4 to 5 am Friday morning and then continue throughout Friday morning into the first half of the afternoon on Friday. The forecast track of Tropical Storm Elsa will take it across southeastern Mass, which will put Western and Central Mass right into the extremely heavy rainfall quadrant of the storm. Any strong winds of up to 50 to 70 mph in gusts will be confined to southeastern Mass, the Cape and the Islands. No strong winds associated with Elsa are expected across Western and Central Mass. The signals are extremely strong for A LOT of rain in a very short period of time. Widespread total rainfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches are expected across Western and Central Mass with isolated amounts of up to 5 to 6 inches possible. Given the immense amount of rain our area has received in just the last 8 days (I have received almost 8 inches of rain since July 1 here in Indian Orchard), the flash flood threat is extremely high. I urge everyone to be ready for the flash flooding of streams and small rivers. In addition, urban and poor drainage flash flooding is also expected. The rain from Elsa is expected to end from west to east during the mid-afternoon hours of Friday and a fairly decent weekend is expected in terms of weather. Saturday looks sunny with high temperatures between 75 and 80 Degrees and Sunday looks partly sunny with high temperatures of near 80 Degrees. I am closely monitoring both the severe weather threat this afternoon into this evening and also the flash flood threat from Elsa and will have updates as needed.