On & Off Heavy Rain With Very Windy Conditions Are Expected This Afternoon & Especially During Tonight Across Western & Central Mass (Posted at 12:30 pm Monday 3/16/2026)

An intense low pressure system and its associated strong cold front is currently pushing through the Great Lakes at the time of this posting. It is expected that this strong cold front will sweep across the area around midnight or so tonight. This entire weather system will bring heavy rain and strong winds to the entire area during this afternoon and especially during this evening and the overnight hours of tonight. Around 2 inches of total rainfall still looks likely and because of this, there will be flood concerns along a majority of the rivers and streams across Western and Central Mass.

During This Afternoon – I expect that there will be on and off showers that will produce heavy rain. In addition, a few embedded thunderstorms are possible within the areas of heavy showers. Because of this, do not be surprised to see a rumble or two of thunder during this afternoon. In-between the rounds of showers, there will be drizzle and fog across the region throughout this afternoon.

Temperatures during this afternoon will be in the 55 to 60 Degree range. Winds during this afternoon will be South and will gradually increase to 15 to 25 mph with gusts to 35 mph.

During Tonight – Widespread showers with heavy rain & a few embedded thunderstorms are expected to overspread the entire area by early this evening. Heavy rain is then expected to continue throughout the overnight hours of tonight.

The rain looks to come to an end between about 5 am and 7 am Tuesday morning.

Rainfall totals of around 2 inches or so can be expected across the entire area. Most of this rain is likely to occur during tonight. The expected 2 inches of total rainfall will definitely be enough to cause some flood concerns along the rivers and streams across Western and Central Mass. Additionally, poor drainage and urban street flooding is quite likely, especially during tonight.

Temperatures during tonight will be between 55 and 60 Degrees during this evening, but will fall into the 40s during the after midnight hours of tonight.

It will be very windy during tonight. I expect that there will be South winds of 25 to 35 mph with gusts to 50 to 60 mph throughout much of the night tonight. Those potentially 60 mph wind gusts look to occur when the strong cold front moves through around midnight tonight. These winds will shift into a Southwesterly direction and decrease to 15 to 25 mph with gusts to 30-40 mph by sunrise Tuesday morning.