I am becoming increasingly more concerned that we are going to see flooding from a lot of rain that falls during the day on Wednesday right through Wednesday night. Weather forecast guidance have been trending all day towards a scenario that produces widespread rain totals of 2 to possibly 4 inches with local amounts of upwards of 5 to 6 inches. The areas that I am particularly concerned about in terms of receiving upwards of that 5 to 6 inches of rain are across the Berkshires and across the Worcester Hills where the very moist air is lifted up over the Worcester Hills and the Berkshires and wrung out in the form of very heavy rain.
As of right now, at the time of this post, a line of heavy downpours stretches right across much of the Pioneer Valley of Western Mass. This rain should continue across the Pioneer Valley (especially the middle and upper Pioneer Valley) over the next 2-3 hours before this round of heavy downpours moves out.
It is then expected that a new round of heavy downpours will first overspread Western Mass by very late tonight & then continue through all of Wednesday morning. These heavy downpours will then overspread all of Central Mass during Wednesday morning and then continue into the early afternoon hours of Wednesday.
Additional rounds of heavy downpours are then anticipated to occur across all of Western and Central Mass during the late afternoon hours of Wednesday and during Wednesday evening.
FORECAST RAIN TOTALS: As I already mentioned, I think that we are easily looking at rain totals of 2 to possibly 4 inches across a large part of Western and Central Mass with most of this rain occurring during the day on Wednesday and during Wednesday evening.
Additionally, the combination of a very humid environment, lots of energy and forcing from the strong low pressure system and a east and southeasterly wind flow will all cause a lot of rain to be wrung out in the Worcester Hills and across the Berkshires during Wednesday and Wednesday evening. Because of this, it is not out of the realm of possibilities that upwards of 5 to 6 inches of rain could accumulate in these areas. Additionally, I have concerns that we will see heavy downpours and thunderstorms continually move over the same areas & this could exacerbate the heavy rain situation. Because of this, flooding is now a big concern during the day on Wednesday & during Wednesday night across the Berkshires and across the Worcester Hills. This flooding will include street flooding, highway flooding, poor drainage flooding and flooding of low-lying areas. Additionally, flooding of streams and small rivers are now a growing concern for the Berkshires and the Worcester Hills.
It goes without saying that I will be monitoring the heavy rainfall & potential flood threat extremely closely for Wednesday and Wednesday night & will have frequent updates as needed.