Good afternoon folks, we’ve got an isolated downpour that may be a bit gusty as it passes into the Northampton/Easthampton area and points east around 3:30-4:30pm. In addition, there will be some other isolated cells that form which will be capable of dropping heavy rain, thunder, small hail, or level localized strong gusty winds.

However, the stronger and wider-spread activity should be positioned well north and northeast of the greater WMass region, which is why all of southern NH (including Cheshire County) got tagged with a Severe Thunderstorm Watch that lasts through 9pm.

Any late afternoon or evening activity will dry out overnight with lows dropping into the 55-60º range with patchy fog possible late.

A few Saturday morning showers are possible along and south of the Pike, but we should be drying by afternoon from northwest to southeast. Highs will climb to either side of 80º under partly sunny skies with similar low temps to tonight.

Sunday, again, is our Weekend Pick by a mile with sunny skies and highs in the upper 70s to mid 80s.

Aside from next Tuesday night into Wednesday when a warm front pushes some more showers into our region, we look like we’ll be warming well into the 80s for the first half of the week, and then reaching some low to even mid 90s by late next week as an upper ridge extends its farthest northeastern reach toward New England at that time.

However, I don’t see that heat and humidity gaining any traction at the moment, as the upper ridge likely retrogrades back west into the central part of the country which will induce a cooler, drier northwestern flow into New England by the following weekend, as it looks now.

Have a great evening!