WPRI 12 Weather Now 7/21/26 Storms This Evening

[00:00:03]Well, here's the reason why we went into a weather alert last night and this morning for today. Step out of the way and take a look at Newport Harbor. These are live pictures. That is a heavy thunderstorm, lightning, downpours, and some gusty wind. This just kicking in 20-30 minutes ago. We're going to keep this in the forecast throughout the evening hours. It's one of those situations where most areas get rain, most areas get thunder, though not every location will get a severe thunderstorm.

[00:00:29]We don't have any severe storms right now, but we certainly have high impact weather that is coming through. You can clearly see it on Doppler radar. These orange, yellow, and reds indicating some of the downpours and thunderstorms and lightning along with some gusty wind.

[00:00:42]They're sub-severe. They haven't been classified as severe. That's not to say that that can't happen over the next several hours, but certainly impactful storms. On our lightning tracker, two clusters of lightning. The first in the northern part of the state. You see the second now south of Newport out towards Block Island. All of this is heading towards Buzzards Bay and coastal mass very shortly. As you can see, the activity essentially working from southwest to northeast. You see some of these heavier downpours across eastern Connecticut moving into northern Rhode Island. That includes central and western Kent County, Coventry, Warwick.

[00:01:15]I would imagine that the Green Airport perhaps some delays on takeoffs and approaches and some of the poor visibility and some of these stronger storms. You got a line of storms now which is just to the south and west of New Bedford. And this is tracking north and east getting ready to head towards New Bedford and Buzzards Bay within the next 30 minutes. Localized street flooding is possible. You see the dark skies now in Providence as these storms move through and 73 degrees.

[00:01:42]Temperatures now in the lower 70s in most areas including 72 in Providence on our weather headlines. Showers and storms now through the evening hours up until about 11:00. Some may be strong to borderline severe.

[00:01:55]Downpours, lightning, localized street flooding, and some gusty wind. Tomorrow, the chance of a passing thunderstorm, though I do feel as though most of the time on Wednesday, it's actually dry, breezy, and humid, but a quick interruption with a thunderstorm in the afternoon can't be ruled out. Get ready for a gorgeous stretch of weather starting Thursday, going all the way through the weekend. One mechanism responsible for some of these storms, this red line is a warm front that's lifting through, helping to create uh, some of the lift in the atmosphere, producing some of these storms. Brand new tropical storm in the Gulf near the Florida Panhandle, Bertha, winds of 60 mph, not anticipated to become a hurricane, heading west towards the Louisiana and Texas coastline over the next several days. That is not an East Coast concern. We'll get in close, and we take a look at the potential for any thunderstorms to be severe. On a scale from one all the way to five, we're at a level one, which is a marginal risk, and the risk is slightly higher the further west you go. So, for this evening, 7:00, still elements of showers and thunderstorms coming through. By around midnight, most of this activity is heading offshore. Now, we wake up tomorrow morning to a little early morning clouds, then skies becoming partly sunny, windy, warm, and humid.

[00:03:07]Temperatures well into the 80s with the approach of a cold front. Doesn't look like much, but a few isolated thunderstorms passing through during the uh, like kind of the mid to late afternoon hours, and then heading offshore uh, tomorrow evening, tomorrow night. That's setting up for a nice Thursday, but be weather aware for this evening. Tomorrow morning, it's, you know, fairly quiet, and then the approach of a cold front tomorrow afternoon may spark just a brief passing thunderstorm. I think at any given location, it wouldn't last very long, but the potential is there, and then get ready for a gorgeous stretch of weather Thursday right on through the weekend.

[00:03:41]In the meantime, some high-impact weather coming through next several hours with thunderstorms.

[00:03:45]>> All right, Tony, thank you. Still ahead