Strong To Severe Thunderstorms Expected Saturday Afternoon Across Western & Central Mass

For This Afternoon: Hot and humid weather is expected this afternoon under sunny to partly sunny skies. A couple of showers and thunderstorms are possible during the mid and late afternoon hours. So, while most areas will remain dry, a few areas may see a brief shower or thunderstorm during the mid and late afternoon hours. Temperatures this afternoon will be between 90 and 95 Degrees. Winds this afternoon will be southwest at 10 to 20 mph with gusts to 30 mph. Tonight: A piece of energy in the mid-levels of the atmosphere is expected to push across the region tonight. This will lead to widespread showers and thunderstorms to overspread the entire area well after midnight tonight. These are expected to bring locally heavy downpours due to the very humid conditions that are expected tonight. This means that street flooding and urban flooding is possible in areas that see thunderstorms late tonight. Low temperatures tonight will be near 70 Degrees under very humid conditions. Winds tonight will be southwest at 8 to 16 mph. Saturday: I am very closely watching the potential for strong to severe thunderstorms during Saturday afternoon across the entire area. Those of you with outdoor plans Saturday afternoon need to keep a very close eye on my weather updates and have a way to seek shelter indoors in the event you find yourself with a thunderstorm approaching. Strong wind gusts, extremely heavy downpours and frequent lightning will all be a threat with strong to severe thunderstorms. The shower and thunderstorm activity that’s expected late tonight should move out of the area by 8-9 am Saturday morning with some partial hazy sunshine expected during the late morning through the midday hours. This will help boost temperatures to about 80 to 85 Degrees by midday. It will also be very humid throughout the day Saturday. At this time, it appears that a line of strong to severe thunderstorms will enter the upper Pioneer Valley of Western Mass as early as 12-1 pm and then push southeastward from there. The current timing, based on my extensive analysis of data, looks to be that this line of strong to severe thunderstorms should reach an area from the lower Pioneer Valley of Western Mass to the northern Worcester Hills by 2-3 pm or so and then reach areas from northern Connecticut east-northeastward through the I-84 corridor to the Worcester Metro by about 4 pm or so. This line of strong to severe thunderstorms is expected to gradually push out of our area by about the 6-7 pm time frame. Given the expectation of a very unstable air mass combined with strong westerly winds at the mid-levels of the atmosphere, strong wind gusts of up to 50-65 mph will be the main threat with any strong to severe thunderstorms. Additionally, given the very humid air mass, extremely heavy downpours with the threat for street flooding and urban flooding can be expected. Finally, frequent lightning is also expected with the thunderstorm activity. This means that all thunderstorms produce lightning and that if you can hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck by lightning. This means that if you have outdoor plans Saturday afternoon, have indoor shelter available so that you can go there when a thunderstorm approaches. Sunday & The Fourth Of July: Both Sunday & the Fourth of July look decent for weather. So, if you have outdoor plans tomorrow, if you can reschedule them for Sunday or Monday. Sunday is expected to feature partly sunny skies with high temperatures between 80 and 85 Degrees. The Fourth of July looks partly sunny with high temperatures between 80 and 85 Degrees.