Massachusetts

House Catches Fire After Lightning Strike

A severe thunderstorm watch was in effect through 8 p.m. in southern and western New England, along with a heat advisory

Severe thunderstorms traveled through parts of New England on Monday afternoon, sparking lightning, causing local damage and briefly affecting flights.

Planes were being held on the runway at Boston Logan International Airport until the storm passed, causing delays for roughly three hours. The heat in Boston also set a record high temperature in Boston Monday.

Monday night: Showers end. Mostly cloudy. Lows in the mid 70s. Tuesday: Mostly sunny. Briefly less Humid. Highs in the upper 80s. Wednesday: Partly cloudy, scattered rain & storms. Some strong storms possible. Highs in the upper 80s and humid.

The heat was disrupted when the storms rolled in, and severe thunderstorm warnings were declared for much of Massachusetts and swaths of New Hampshire, Connecticut, Maine and Rhode Island.

A fire in Pakachoag Crossing in Auburn, Massachusetts, Monday afternoon was believed to have been caused by a lightning strike, the local fire department said.

A lightning strike started a house fire in Auburn, Massachusetts, but no one was hurt.

"We heard a huge crash," said neighbor Jessica Palmieri. "Really bright light, the lightning and thunder were right on top of each other. It sounded like it hit something, we just didn't know what."

No one injured, as the family was out at the time.

"Very grateful nobody was hurt," said homeowner Kate Sanford. "Really grateful how quick Auburn Fire and everybody responded, very grateful to my entire neighborhood because apparently, many of them called 911."

The family's dog, a black Labrador named Jordan, went missing. She was later found in someone's yard about a half mile away.

"She's a big part of the family and that wouldn't be complete until I knew where she was," Sanford said.

Temperatures reached the mid 90s, with the dewpoint in the 70s, putting the heat index near 100°. The thermometer reached 95° in Boston Monday afternoon, a new record, according to the National Weather Service.

The heat and humidity, along with front moving out of New York in the afternoon, meant a tremendous amount of instability. Therefore any thunderstorm was capable of producing an inch of rain in very short time, along with always dangerous lightning, and scattered wind gusts past 55 mph. and large hail.

Storms were moving from west to east at about 30 mph. Individual storms should have only lasted a few minutes any one location, so the flood threat was minimized.

Behind the front later tonight will be significantly less humid air in northern and western New England shortly after sunset. But it will take until about daybreak for that lower humidity to make it to the south coast. The sky will clear overnight in any fog should break by morning, low temperature in the 50s north and 60s south.

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Tuesday looks beautiful, with plenty of sunshine, much less humidity, and a high temperature in the middle 80s. Light winds with local onshore breezes keeping the beach a little cooler.

Another warm front comes back in Tuesday night, which means humidity comes back up along with many clouds and more thunderstorms Wednesday. The day may feature some slower moving heavier thunderstorms that could result in some flash flooding. Thanks to all the clouds, it's only near 80°, but it's very sticky.

Another cold front will come through on Thursday, along with another round of strong to severe thunderstorms, with possible flash flooding. Temperatures will be in the 80s with very humid air.

A stronger and bigger high-pressure system will move in from Canada Friday, and should spend the weekend in New England. That means the humidity goes away and sunshine comes back, so we may actually have a weekend without any severe thunderstorms. It's still a long way out, but we’re optimistic in our First Alert 10-Day Forecast.

Increased temps and humidity are back Monday and have returned with a heat advisory. The heat mixed with the chances for thunderstorms has prompted a First Alert.

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