Early Saturday Afternoon Weather Update For Western & Central Mass

Radar imagery as of the time of this writing showed an area of showers now pushing their way across Western and Central Mass. These showers are mostly scattered in nature & should move out of the area by about 3 pm.

Once these showers depart, we may see about 2-3 hours or so of sunshine late this afternoon & this might help boost temperatures into the low to mid 70s. This sunshine with temps in the low to mid 70s might lead to an atmosphere that is somewhat unstable & somewhat favorable in producing some isolated strong thunderstorms as we head towards this evening.

Latest indications seem to be pointing towards some scattered thunderstorms first affecting Western Mass beginning about 6-7 pm & then affecting Central Mass beginning around 8 pm. These thunderstorms are then expected to last until about 10-11 pm this evening.

While I am not expecting a widespread severe thunderstorm event, I do think that perhaps one or two of the thunderstorms will probably be strong and maybe even severe in nature. Any strong or severe thunderstorms will be capable of producing wind gusts of up to 45-60 mph, pea to penny size hail, torrential downpours and of course, lightning.

I am aware that there are a ton of both indoor and outdoor events that are going on this afternoon and this evening. Given this, my advice to you is to keep close tabs on the weather, especially during this evening. Be prepared to take sturdy shelter should thunderstorms threaten.

I will continue to keep an eye on things in terms of the thunderstorm threat & will have more updates for you as needed.