Downpours were minding their own business this afternoon, just drifting along (with big gaps in between) when they wandered a little too close to the coast.
And the sea breeze.
Then whammo! The sky opened up and the water rushed through the city. Thunder was frequent and lightning was vivid from the immediate North Shore to the South Shore. Check out this shot!
@klemanowicz @pbouchardon7 @ericfisher Huge lightning bolt looking east from Cohasset, MA pic.twitter.com/W0WMQnDFDP
— Tucker Antico (@tuckerweather) August 18, 2015
What role did the sea breeze have in storm maintenance and development? Quite simply, it gave them an extra boost – flooding them with humid air from the ocean and providing a new channel of moisture to expand the downpours. This isn't always the case with the sea breeze. It's only around this time of year – with water temperatures near 70 – that the sea breeze helps (not hinders) storms.
The story was no drier elsewhere. Tremendous amounts of water came out of a storm that formed in Franklin, then slowly moseyed north to the 'boros. Rainfall totals of over 2" were reported in just an hour's time in Franklin, prompting a flood warning.
Things will settle down overnight, and a more pronounced southeast wind will start the cooling process tomorrow. Don't get me wrong, we're still looking at a hot day, just not as hot as the 94 degree readings we saw in Lawrence, Fitchburg and Pepperell today.
So that's the good news…if you don't like the heat. The bad news is that there's a front that will get hung up over us into the weekend. I'm playing the cloudy, humid card more than the rain card on this one. Not a lot to trigger showers, and certainly nothing to shake the clouds.
Pete