Rain With Very Gusty Winds Are Expected Wednesday Afternoon & Wednesday Evening

For This Afternoon: An area of high pressure will gradually move to the east this afternoon while a frontal boundary pushes across the Great Lakes towards our area. This means that sunshine will be filtered through gradually increasing high clouds. Temperatures will be near 45 Degrees. Winds will become Southeast at 5 to 10 mph. Tonight: That frontal system will push into the eastern Great Lakes region by late tonight. Clear skies will be filtered through a continuation of an increase in high clouds this evening with increasing mid and lower level clouds expected by late tonight. Low temperatures will be between 26 and 31 Degrees. Winds will be South at 5 to 10 mph. Wednesday & Wednesday Night: A strong cold front is expected to sweep through the region from west to east during late Wednesday afternoon and Wednesday evening. Rain is expected to overspread Western Mass by midday with the rain overspreading Central Mass by about 1-2 pm or so. It appears that the rain will be moderate to heavy at times from about 4 pm to about 8 pm. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some isolated thunderstorms, especially when the actual front moves through Western Mass around 5-6 pm and Central Mass around 6-7 pm. If that wasn’t enough, this cold front is expected to bring a period of very gusty winds during the late afternoon and evening hours of Wednesday. All signs point to that we’ll see south winds increase from 10 to 20 mph with gusts to 30 mph during the morning to 18 to 28 mph with gusts to 40 to 50 mph during the afternoon. It also appears that a period of very gusty winds, which could lead to some power outages and the possibility of some downed trees between as wind gusts to 50 to 60 mph are likely when the actual front moves through. These very gusty winds (wind gusts to 50 to 60 mph) are expected across Western Mass between 4 pm and 6 pm and across Central Mass between 5 pm and 7 pm or so. Once that front moves through during Wednesday evening, expect the rain to end by about 8 pm across Western Mass and by about 9 pm across Central Mass. It’s even possible that the rain could end as a very brief period of wet snow across the northern Worcester Hills, the Berkshires and the western Hilltowns of Western Mass with maybe up to one half of an inch of snow possible. It will also continue to be windy on Wednesday night with west winds of 15 to 25 mph with gusts to 40 mph throughout the overnight hours. High temperatures Wednesday will be between 55 and 60 Degrees. Low temperatures Wednesday night will be near 30 Degrees. Thursday & Friday: An area of high pressure will gradually build into the area during Thursday and Friday. Thursday will be sunny and windy with high temperatures near 40 Degrees. Winds will be West at 15 to 25 mph with gusts to 35 to 40 mph. Thursday night will be clear to partly cloudy with low temperatures near 25 Degrees. Friday is expected to be sunny to partly sunny with much less wind. High temperatures will be between 40 and 45 Degrees.