Severe thunderstorms across Massachusetts could bring frequent lightning, small hail
By Terry Eliasen, WBZ-TV Meteorologist, Executive Weather Producer
BOSTON - The WBZ Weather Team is issuing a NEXT Weather Alert for the potential of some severe thunderstorms Wednesday afternoon and evening.
We continue to be stuck in an unsettled weather pattern. Boston has had rain on just about every day so far this month. Despite the active pattern, we haven't experienced much severe weather to this point. That could change on Wednesday.
We are expecting a broken line of downpours and thunderstorms to move from west to east across our area on Wednesday.
There will likely be some storms that reach severe criteria, especially over parts of western and central Massachusetts.
Severe parameters are rather marginal Wednesday, meaning, we are not expecting any sort of major or long-lasting severe outbreak. However, there will likely be some cells that contain frequent lightning and very heavy downpours. We also cannot rule out some isolated wind damage or small hail.
One caveat - there is a chance that the storm activity gets delayed a bit and doesn't arrive in our area until near sunset. If that were the case, the chances of getting any severe weather would be very low.
Looking beyond Wednesday, Thursday will be a quieter day with only an isolated risk of a few pop up showers.
It will be a bit warmer on Friday, however, there will be some showers and storms late in the day once again.
There's good and bad news for the weekend. The good news is that neither day will be a washout. The bad news is there will be numerous showers around on both days.