Yellow alert: several hours of thundery rain on Wednesday afternoon

A yellow warning is in effect for Wednesday afternoon for a brief period of thunderstorms that may bring gusty winds and locally heavy rain. No widespread strong storms are expected, but the timing of when some storms move into Monroe County and surrounding areas could impact afternoon traffic and your outdoor plans. We’re marking the period from about 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. as our thunderstorm window. Impacts should be relatively minimal, but you should have a way to get radar and updates if you’re outdoors. Before then, it will get quite warm with temperatures in the 30s, which will fuel some of these storms. The cold front will move through early Thursday morning, bringing with it most of the showers and thunderstorms, so we’ll get some sunshine and drier air back. That sun, along with cooler air aloft, will help bring some scattered afternoon showers, especially along the sea breeze boundaries from Buffalo to Rochester.

Then, by the weekend, a cooler and more unsettled weather pattern will begin. A low over the Great Lakes and Northeast will keep temperatures between 18 and 21 degrees. During peak temperatures, we’ll also see sudden showers. So Friday through Sunday will start dry with some sun, then clouds will build and showers will arrive midday into the afternoon hours, and they’ll fizzle out by evening. By early to mid-next week, we should break out of this pattern and warmer and more summery air will return. So enjoy the break from air conditioning this weekend.