First Alert Weather: Yellow Alert for non-severe but thunderstorms with heavy rain

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – We continue our Yellow Alert through this afternoon for thunderstorms producing locally heavy rain. These storms aren’t severe but are producing lightning and torrential downpours where they pop up. They have been focused primarily on Monroe County, so watch out for ponding on roads through the evening commute. If you have outdoor plans, make sure you pay attention to the sky, and head indoors if you hear thunder or see lightning, even if it isn’t raining where you are. This Yellow Alert will be dropped this evening, as the main cluster of storms moves away.

We’re still waiting on a cold front, which will move through early Thursday morning. Until then, we’re fair game for more showers and some thundery downpours overnight and early Thursday morning. Once the front moves through, we’ll feel a big change in the weather, with less humid air replacing the warm and humid air we’ve had in place. While we’ll see some sunshine at times on Thursday, that sun will help to spark a few more showers, especially from Rochester to Buffalo, along or just north of the Thruway along a lake breeze convergence zone. This cold front will also set the stage for a pattern change into the weekend. A secondary cold front moves through by Friday morning, dropping our temperatures into the mid and upper 60s Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, along with scattered pop-up showers. These showers will tend to blossom with the heating of the day, focusing on the afternoon hours.