Hot & Humid Tuesday With Strong To Severe Thunderstorms From 3-8 pm Across Western & Central Mass

Hot & Humid On Tuesday: After a cool and wet holiday weekend, the heat and humidity will return in vengeance on Tuesday. A southwesterly wind flow around a high pressure ridge will lead to afternoon high temperatures of 90 to 95 Degrees across all of Western and Central Mass. In addition to the heat, it will be quite humid with heat index numbers of near 100 Degrees expected from late morning through the afternoon hours. One thing that may make it feel a little more tolerable are the gusty southwest winds which will gust up to 30 to 35 mph at times. Severe Thunderstorms Very Likely Between 3 pm & 8 pm Tuesday: A bigger concern on Tuesday will be the threat for strong to severe thunderstorms between about 3 pm and 8 pm Tuesday. A piece of atmospheric energy is expected to push into this hot, humid and very unstable air mass during Tuesday afternoon. Strong to severe thunderstorms are expected to develop across the entire area beginning around 3 pm or so on Tuesday and then continue through the late afternoon and evening hours before coming to an end around 8 pm or so Tuesday. Strong wind gusts of up to 60 to 70 mph is likely to be the main threat with any severe storms. In addition, given the very humid air mass that will be in place, extremely heavy rainfall with localized street flooding will also be a threat. Finally, there are some signals in the data that suggest the possibility for a rotating severe storm or two that could produce large hail or even a tornado or two. I will be monitoring the weather very closely on Tuesday and will have additional updates as needed.