Threat For Strong To Severe Thunderstorms Between 2-3 pm This Afternoon & 8 pm This Evening

Threat For Strong To Severe Thunderstorms Between About 2-3 pm This Afternoon To About 8 pm This Evening: It’s going to be a very bumpy afternoon and evening for some of you across Western and Central Mass as strong to severe thunderstorms will be a very real threat. Satellite and radar data as of midday indicates that thunderstorms are intensifying across central into eastern New York State. Additionally, towering cumulus clouds are noted on satellite imagery as far east as the Berkshires where I suspect we’ll see thunderstorm development occur within the next hour or so. Based on my latest analysis, it appears that thunderstorm coverage will be more widespread than what I thought yesterday. In addition, many of these thunderstorms will probably be strong to severe. The time frame of greatest threat for severe thunderstorms currently appears to be between about 2-3 pm and about 7-8 pm across Western Mass and between about 3-4 pm and about 8 pm across Central Mass. There are potentially some pretty significant threats with any severe thunderstorms that occur. These include very strong wind gusts of up to 65 to 75 mph, hail up to the size of ping pongs, a tornado threat, frequent lightning and torrential downpours. I am monitoring the severe weather threat extremely closely and will have more updates as needed.