Tornado threat issued for New England and regions of Northeast including NYC

WORCESTER, Mass. – People across the Northeast and New England will need to keep an eye on the sky Sunday as a strong cold front slices through the region and breaks the recent brutal heat wave, but that will also trigger the development of strong to severe thunderstorms that could produce large hail, damaging wind gusts and tornadoes.On Sunday afternoon, NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center (SPC) issued a Tornado Watch for more than 8 million people in parts of New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.The Tornado Watch remains in effect until 8 p.m.

ET.Boston is not included in the Tornado Watch, but it does include the city’s northern and western suburbs.The SPC placed nearly 61 million people in 14 states, from the Ohio Valley to the Northeast, in a Level 2 out of 5 risk on its 5-point severe thunderstorm risk scale on Sunday.That threat zone includes major cities along the Interstate 95 corridor from Washington and Baltimore through Philadelphia, New York City and Boston.However, the SPC has highlighted an area of the Northeast that is in a Level 3 out of 5 risk for severe weather on Sunday and includes cities in five states – New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.Among the communities within that Level 3 risk zone are Albany in New York, Springfield, Worcester, Lowell and Lawrence in Massachusetts, Nashua, Manchester and Concord in New Hampshire and Montpelier and Brattleboro in Vermont.For the areas under a Level 3 risk of severe weather in central and northern New England, the tornado threat on Sunday is the highest it’s been in about six years, according to historical data from the SPC.The FOX Forecast Center said the favorable environmental conditions, combined with the position of warm fronts and cold fronts, could lead to a setup for severe weather on Sunday that doesn’t often happen in the region.According to SPC data, Maine and Massachusetts typically...