First Alert Weather: Storms with heavy rain Thursday

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Our weather will be turning much more active to end the week, with a Yellow Alert up on Thursday for heavy rain.

Some tropical moisture is being drawn northward as Elsa begins to make its way up the coast. Strong thunderstorms from Pennsylvania and Michigan will slowly work toward Western New York tonight. They will begin to weaken as they get closer, but a few storms may be strong with gusty winds, mainly in the southern Finger Lakes before midnight.

This will transition to rain showers overnight, possibly another rumble of thunder by morning. You’ll want to keep your umbrella and rain boots handy on Thursday, with scattered thunderstorms, some of them producing locally heavy rain with that tropical moisture working in. The strongest storms and heaviest rain will fall during the afternoon and evening hours. The potential exists for some locations to pick up 1-2" of rain on Thursday, which may lead to some localized flooding. While strong winds aren’t the main weather threat Thursday, a few storms may produce some gusty winds. Thunder will taper Thursday night, leaving us with a few more scattered showers on Friday, but a much drier day.

The weekend: We should dry out nicely this weekend, with a partly cloudy sky Saturday and highs in the upper 70s. Sunday will see increasing clouds and a few showers working in late in the day (toward sunset), and highs in the lower 80s. We’ll warm things up and crank up the humidity again early next week, with highs in the mid-80s, and dew points in the lower 70s. A few storms will fire later Monday and into Tuesday, with some of those storms also capable of producing locally heavy rain.

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