Norwich is headed for a hot, sunny start to the weekend, but the calm will not last. Accuweather expects Friday, June 5, to be mostly sunny and hot with a high near 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and Saturday, June 6, to stay warm before thunderstorms move in that night.
That forecast is why people are checking the weather now: the change from summerlike sunshine to storm risk lands right in the middle of the weekend, when outdoor plans are easiest to make and hardest to move. Accuweather says Saturday will be partly cloudy and breezy in the afternoon with a high of 86 degrees Fahrenheit, then turns to storms after dark.
For Sunday, June 7, the outlook becomes more unsettled. Accuweather is calling for mostly cloudy weather in Norwich with a couple of showers and a thunderstorm, an 85% chance of rain and a high of 83 degrees Fahrenheit. The rain is expected to last about two hours, making the later part of the weekend wetter and cooler than the first two days.
Hayden Frank put the risk in plain terms: if you hear thunder, you are close enough to get struck by lightning. That warning fits the larger picture beyond Norwich. A weather graphic on the National Weather Service website shows the northern part of Connecticut at a level 2 risk for severe thunderstorms on Saturday, which is described as slight risk, while the coast is marked at level 1, or marginal.
The same forecast notes that thunderstorms are expected across Southern New England and could turn severe, with damaging wind and frequent lightning among the main threats. That is the friction in the weekend outlook: bright, warm weather for Friday and much of Saturday, followed by storms that may hit hard enough to change plans quickly. The question that remains is not whether rain is coming, but how severe it becomes once the clouds build over Norwich Saturday night.
