Severe storms possible Saturday in central and western Massachusetts with low tornado risk
Severe weather is in the forecast for a large part of Massachusetts Saturday.
The Storm Prediction Center has highlighted areas immediately northwest of Boston with a "marginal" risk of severe weather and areas northwest of Worcester with a "slight" (level 2) risk.
The SPC also has outlined that same area with an elevated risk of wind damage and a low risk of a tornado.
The feel of summer will be in the air on Saturday with high temperatures surging well into the 80s along with a very humid airmass. The day will start off sunny and warm but by the afternoon, we will see rapidly building clouds to the west along an approaching cold front.
When will it rain Saturday?
Storms will fire across western Massachusetts between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday. Areas north and west of Boston, including Worcester and Middlesex counties, could see storms any time between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.
The cold front will lose its punch around sunset, and we do not expect the storms to make the trip into eastern or southeastern Massachusetts.
Any storms that do form on Saturday may contain very heavy downpours, frequent lightning, damaging-straight-line winds and small hail.
While the tornado risk is low, it is not zero. This is an isolated threat and more likely during the max heating of the day, in the afternoon hours, in western and central Massachusetts.
Patriots dreary weather forecast
Unfortunately, the cold front is going to stall out over southern New England on Sunday.
This will lead to a rather cloudy, dreary day with some scattered rain showers for the Patriots game at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. The first quarter kicks off with a temperature of 66 degrees and will be 68 degrees in the fourth quarter.
We do expect the clouds and rain threat to exit the region late in the day, ushering in a lovely start and fall-feel to next week.