Showers & Thunderstorms Expected This Evening Across Western & Central Mass

For The Rest Of This Afternoon: We will be in the mild sector in-between a warm front to the north and a cold front to the west during the rest of this afternoon. This means that skies will be partly sunny across Western Mass by 2-3 pm and across Central Mass by about 4 pm or so. This sunshine will cause temperatures to soar into the 62 to 67 Degree range across the entire area. Also, dew point temperatures will rise into the 50s to possibly closing in on 60 Degrees leading to a bit of a muggy feel in the air. Winds this afternoon will be Southwest at 10 to 20 mph with gusts to 30 mph. Showers & Thunderstorms Expected This Evening: A robust cold front is expected to push across the region between 8 pm and 11 pm this evening. This cold front will tap into a mild, somewhat humid and somewhat unstable air mass to produce the threat for thunderstorms, some of which could be strong to maybe even severe. There are questions, however, to whether the unstable air will diminish as the line of thunderstorms moves across the area causing the thunderstorms to weaken. My thinking is that the thunderstorms will probably be on a weakening trend once they push out of the Berkshires and the Connecticut River Valley and the area that has the greatest chance of seeing severe weather will be the Berkshires and perhaps the I-91 corridor. That said, I’m going to be watching this line of thunderstorms very closely this evening, for sure. So, I expect a line of showers and thunderstorms to move across Western Mass between 7-8 pm and 9-10 pm this evening. A few of these thunderstorms could be strong to even severe with a threat for 50-70 mph wind gusts and hail. Further east, this line of showers and thunderstorms will move across Central Mass between 8-9 pm and 10-11 pm this evening. It’s possible that one or two of these thunderstorms could be on the strong side with a threat for up to 40-50 mph wind gusts and small hail. That said, I’m going to be watching this line closely in case it holds together and doesn’t weaken. Once that cold front moves to the east by midnight, temperatures will fall into the mid to upper 30s during the after midnight hours of tonight. Winds this evening will be Southwest at 10 to 20 mph. Winds after midnight tonight will be West at 15 to 25 mph with gusts to 35 mph. Sunday & Monday: Sunshine returns to the area for both Sunday and Monday. It will also be quite windy on Monday with wind gusts of up to 35 mph expected. High temperatures Sunday will be near 45 Degrees. High temperatures Monday will be near 55 Degrees.