Severe Weather Alert: Strong storms, Tornado Watch issued

This is a 22 news storm team severe weather alert. And time now is 12 15 on this thursday. We do have a 22 storm team severe weather alert. We do have a tornado watch from the National Weather Service for Berkshire County as we go into the early half of this afternoon. They have it up until three p.m. At the moment again, that is for this afternoon ahead of a line of thunderstorms that we're watching off to our west. Our live camera network here to shows up mostly cloudy sky for everyone. There could be a little spot shower to out there for now, but nothing severe just yet. We are watching again that line off to our west, which I'll show you in just a moment. Either way you walk outside, you notice two things. It's humid, very humid and it's also windy. Got a wind coming in right out of the south of the 15 MPH sustained in Springfield and Westfield. Wind gusts have been up near 30 MPH in some spots, especially back in Berkshire County, 37 MPH there in Great Barrington, 33 MPH in Pittsfield, 23 MPH in downtown Springfield. There will likely be even stronger wind gusts as we go through later this afternoon as that front tries to move on through temperatures out there, 71 in Springfield for now, 70 in Northampton, some low seventies back in Berkshire County. So it's not necessarily that warm upper sixties and low seventies, but you walk outside and it's very muggy. Got those dew points in the upper sixties to right around 70. So that's another thing that's gonna help some of these thunderstorms. If they do develop really strengthen lots of moisture in the atmosphere. And of course, if any sun breaks through, that's also not a good thing to add on to everything else we're dealing with. Any sun that comes through will destabilize the atmosphere even more, and that could allow us to get even more thunderstorm activity through the afternoon. So we'll keep an eye on that as well. High temperatures for today will climb to the upper seventies to right around 80. Our main time frame for those storms will be between around 2 to 5 p.m. So about another few hours will start to see that line get closer to us. Showers and thunderstorms for the afternoon. That is the top of the 20 storm team forecast. Focus mostly dry temperature around 80 for the weekend. Looks beautiful for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and then heading into early next week. Rain is looking more likely for Monday, and it could be a good soaking rain. Definitely. I know the lawns need it. Some lawns turning brown, so hopefully we can get a good soaking of water next week. Right now we're nice and dry, maybe a spot sprinkle, but you can see this line off to our west. Pretty healthy looking, and you can see there are some severe thunderstorm warnings in that line already. Those yellow polygons here and even a tornado warning there just north of Binghamton, New York. So we'll continue to keep an eye on that line as it gets closer to us. We do have a level two threat out of five from the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center, so it is slightly elevated for this afternoon. And here's sky cast for you as we go through the afternoon two o'clock here. Not a lot going on. Notice there are some holes in the clouds here on sky cast. So that's what we're watching for. Some sun could break through, so don't be surprised if you see some sunlight. But as we go through the afternoon, that line moves on through. You can see some of these thunderstorm cells just kind of popping up, popping up very scattered all the way through around four p.m. So as I mentioned, the main time frame two to five p.m. And then it's mostly out of here. We'll drive things up as we go through tonight, and that'll set us up for a really nice weekend. So what are we looking for in terms of the severe threat for this afternoon? The main concerns are heavy rain, strong, gusty, straight line winds and, of course, lightning hail. Not our biggest concern can't be ruled out, but I think it's pretty much the least likely out of anything that could really happen. Also, of course, that chance for maybe a brief spin up in the atmosphere. So a weak tornado can't be ruled out in terms of the wind. We're gonna continue to see those wind gusts around 30 MPH through the afternoon, and then it tries to back off as we go towards this evening. So for today, 78 to 82 through tonight, we're gonna fall back into the fifties and low sixties, partly cloudy and dry again. The weekend looks beautiful. Tomorrow is a really nice day for Friday. Lots of sun, lower humidity temperatures in the low eighties. Saturday and Sunday look good. Sunday is also the first official day of summer. It's also Father's Day. Looks nice for that rain on Monday and then Tuesday and Wednesday, looking fine temperatures in the low eighties. Once you got our latest forecast, you could do so by getting the free 20 dues mobile lab.