Lee Will Bring Windy Conditions To Western & Central Mass Tonight Through Saturday

For Tonight: Hurricane Lee is currently located well to the southeast of the Cape and is expected to head northward tonight reaching a point about 150-175 miles due east of the Cape by Saturday morning. The wind field surrounding Lee is expected to continue to widen tonight. Because of this, northerly winds will gradually increase tonight from 10 to 20 mph with gusts to 30 mph this evening to 15 to 20 mph with gusts to 35 mph after midnight tonight across the entire area. Other than that, cloudy skies are expected tonight with low temperatures between 55 and 60 Degrees. Saturday: A pretty windy day is expected on Saturday with the windiest conditions expected during the afternoon. Lee is expected to make landfall in Atlantic Canada between southern New Brunswick and southwestern Nova Scotia by late in the day. Even though Lee will be weakening, a tight pressure gradient between the storm and an area of high pressure to the west will create some pretty gusty winds throughout the day on Saturday. For Western Mass, I expect North to Northwest winds to blow at 15 to 25 mph with gusts to 35 mph in the morning and at 15 to 25 mph with gusts to 40 mph during the afternoon. For Central Mass, North to Northwest winds are expected to be 15 to 25 mph with gusts to 35-40 mph during the morning and 15 to 25 mph with gusts to 45 mph or so during the afternoon. The windy conditions across the area could lead to some downed trees and power lines. The reason for this is due to the fact that the trees are still fully leafed and the ground is extremely saturated. This means that trees will be pretty susceptible to being blown down leading to the potential for isolated power outages across Western Mass and scattered power outages across Central Mass. In addition, no rain at all is expected during Saturday across the entire area with just cloudy skies expected during the day. In fact, some breaks in the clouds are likely across Western Mass during the afternoon as Lee moves northward towards Atlantic Canada. High temperatures Saturday will be near 70 Degrees. All-in-all though, this storm is going to be much more like a distant offshore Fall Nor’easter than a tropical system. Because of this, it’ll probably be a nothing burger across Western Mass and nothing more than a nuisance storm across Central Mass due to very gusty winds and the possibility of downed trees and some power outages. Sunday Through Next Week: Besides a follow up frontal system moving through on Monday bringing with it shower activity, much of next week looks quite decent with plenty of sunshine and low humidity. Sunday is expected to be sunny with high temperatures between 75 and 80 Degrees. On and off shower activity is expected for Monday with high temperatures between 65 and 70 Degrees. Tuesday looks sunny to partly sunny with high temperatures between 70 and 75 Degrees. Wednesday looks sunny with high temperatures near 70 Degrees. Thursday and next Friday both look sunny to partly sunny with high temperatures both days between 70 and 75 Degrees.