Thunderstorms This Afternoon Into Early This Evening; A Few Of The Storms May Be Strong To Severe

It looks the entire area will see at least a couple of rounds of showers and thunderstorms right through this afternoon and this evening. The question continues to be which areas have the greatest chance of seeing strong to severe thunderstorms. As of late this morning, an area of showers is currently pushing east-northeastward from eastern New York State into northern Connecticut and into the lower Pioneer Valley. These showers will push east-northeastward and will affect areas near and south of the Mass Pike until about 1-2 pm. Once this first round of showers exits, we will likely see a lull in the shower and thunderstorm activity during the early and mid-afternoon hours. This will give the atmosphere plenty of time to warm up to 85 to 90 Degrees and for things to become quite unstable. By late this afternoon, I expect to see thunderstorms develop across areas of the region that are near and south of the Mass Pike. Some of these storms could be on the strong to severe side with 50-60 mph wind gusts, dime size hail, torrential downpours with flash flooding and frequent lightning. At the same time this is occurring, we should see a line of thunderstorms, some of which will be on the strong side move from northwest to southeast across the region. It’s expected that these storms will first affect areas from the Berkshires to the Route 2 corridor beginning about 5-6 pm and then push southeastward reaching areas near the Mass Pike by 7-8 pm. This line of thunderstorms will continue moving southeastward and should exit our area by about 9-11 pm. I do think that some of the thunderstorms with that southeast moving line of storms will be on the strong to possibly severe side with 50-60 mph wind gusts, dime to penny size hail, torrential downpours with flash flooding and frequent lightning. In terms of where the greatest chance for strong to severe thunderstorms may set up, based on the latest data, I think that areas from the lower Pioneer Valley of Western Mass east-northeastward to about the Worcester Metro and points south from there has a higher chance of seeing a few of the thunderstorms being on the strong to severe side this afternoon and early this evening. Again, any strong to severe thunderstorms will be capable of producing 50-60 mph wind gusts, dime to penny size hail, torrential downpours with flash flooding and frequent lightning. Keep checking back for updates regarding this afternoon and evening’s thunderstorms as I will most certainly be posting updates as needed. In addition, make sure you have multiple ways of receiving severe weather warnings. Finally, it’s not a bad idea to have a good radar app on your smart phone. I highly recommend and frequently use both RadarOmega and RadarScope for looking at radar data.