Alert archive / Massachusetts / Wind Advisories in 2026
Wind Advisory 5, NWS Boston/Norton, MA
NWS Boston/Norton, MA issued this wind advisory at May 4, 2026, 11:43 AM EDT for 7 counties in Massachusetts; 5 counties in Rhode Island. It took effect at May 5, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT. It was in force for 6 hr.
The area
The counties it named.
The facts
- Issued
- May 4, 2026, 11:43 AM EDT (15:43 UTC)
- In effect from
- May 5, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT
- Expired
- May 5, 2026, 6:12 PM EDT
- In force
- 6 hr
- Issued by
- NWS Boston/Norton, MA
Counties Barnstable County, MA, Bristol County, MA, Essex County, MA, Middlesex County, MA, Norfolk County, MA, Plymouth County, MA, Suffolk County, MA, Bristol County, RI, Kent County, RI, Newport County, RI, Providence County, RI, Washington County, RI
The radar
The Boston radar (KBOX), 3 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 15:48 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.
Open the radar archive at this moment
The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.
The nearest sounding before it
Brookhaven, NY (KOKX), launched 12:00Z, 3.7 hours before the alert went out and 185 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- No buoyant parcel
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1976 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 40 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 163 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 151 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
The text
As transmitted.
721 WWUS71 KBOX 041543 NPWBOX URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service Boston/Norton MA 1143 AM EDT Mon May 4 2026 MAZ005>007-013>022-RIZ002>007-050445- /O.NEW.KBOX.WI.Y.0005.260505T1600Z-260506T0200Z/ Central Middlesex MA-Western Essex MA-Eastern Essex MA-Western Norfolk MA-Southeast Middlesex MA-Suffolk MA-Eastern Norfolk MA- Northern Bristol MA-Western Plymouth MA-Eastern Plymouth MA- Southern Bristol MA-Southern Plymouth MA-Barnstable MA-Southeast Providence RI-Western Kent RI-Eastern Kent RI-Bristol RI- Washington RI-Newport RI- Including the cities of Taunton, Lowell, West Warwick, Westerly, East Greenwich, Provincetown, Brockton, Quincy, Providence, Gloucester, Bristol, Cambridge, West Greenwich, Boston, Plymouth, Narragansett, Mattapoisett, Newport, Coventry, Chatham, Lawrence, Foxborough, Framingham, Falmouth, Norwood, Fall River, New Bedford, and Warwick 1143 AM EDT Mon May 4 2026 ...WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM NOON TO 10 PM EDT TUESDAY... * WHAT...Southwest winds 15 to 30 mph with gusts of 40 to 50 mph expected. * WHERE...Eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. * WHEN...From noon to 10 PM EDT Tuesday with the strongest winds expected from 3 to 7 pm on Tuesday. * IMPACTS...Gusty winds will blow around unsecured objects. Tree limbs could be blown down and some power outages may result. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Winds this strong can make driving difficult, especially for high profile vehicles. Use extra caution. && $$ Visit us at http://www.weather.gov/box Frank
2 follow-up statements
053 WWUS71 KBOX 050640 NPWBOX URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service Boston/Norton MA 240 AM EDT Tue May 5 2026 MAZ005>007-013>022-RIZ002>007-060000- /O.CON.KBOX.WI.Y.0005.260505T1600Z-260506T0200Z/ Central Middlesex MA-Western Essex MA-Eastern Essex MA-Western Norfolk MA-Southeast Middlesex MA-Suffolk MA-Eastern Norfolk MA- Northern Bristol MA-Western Plymouth MA-Eastern Plymouth MA- Southern Bristol MA-Southern Plymouth MA-Barnstable MA-Southeast Providence RI-Western Kent RI-Eastern Kent RI-Bristol RI- Washington RI-Newport RI- Including the cities of Fall River, Plymouth, Falmouth, Gloucester, Newport, Coventry, Bristol, Narragansett, West Warwick, West Greenwich, Framingham, Mattapoisett, Cambridge, Provincetown, Quincy, Boston, East Greenwich, Brockton, Providence, Foxborough, Lawrence, New Bedford, Westerly, Lowell, Taunton, Norwood, Chatham, and Warwick 240 AM EDT Tue May 5 2026 ...WIND ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO 10 PM EDT THIS EVENING... * WHAT...Southwest winds 15 to 30 mph with gusts of 40 to 50 mph expected. * WHERE...Portions of eastern, northeastern, and southeastern Massachusetts and northern and southern Rhode Island. * WHEN...From noon today to 10 PM EDT this evening. * IMPACTS...Gusty winds will blow around unsecured objects. Tree limbs could be blown down and some power outages may result. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Winds this strong can make driving difficult, especially for high profile vehicles. Use extra caution. && $$ Visit us at http://www.weather.gov/box Dooley
849 WWUS71 KBOX 052212 NPWBOX URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service Boston/Norton MA 612 PM EDT Tue May 5 2026 MAZ005>007-013>022-RIZ002>007-052315- /O.CAN.KBOX.WI.Y.0005.000000T0000Z-260506T0200Z/ Central Middlesex MA-Western Essex MA-Eastern Essex MA-Western Norfolk MA-Southeast Middlesex MA-Suffolk MA-Eastern Norfolk MA- Northern Bristol MA-Western Plymouth MA-Eastern Plymouth MA- Southern Bristol MA-Southern Plymouth MA-Barnstable MA-Southeast Providence RI-Western Kent RI-Eastern Kent RI-Bristol RI- Washington RI-Newport RI- Including the cities of Quincy, Foxborough, Bristol, Narragansett, Lawrence, Brockton, Plymouth, Providence, Fall River, Boston, Gloucester, Coventry, Provincetown, New Bedford, Chatham, Framingham, West Warwick, East Greenwich, Taunton, Norwood, West Greenwich, Cambridge, Newport, Warwick, Lowell, Falmouth, Westerly, and Mattapoisett 612 PM EDT Tue May 5 2026 ...WIND ADVISORY IS CANCELLED... The risk for southerly wind gusts capable of causing minor wind damage has ended. Therefore the Wind Advisory will be cancelled. It will still be breezy with gusts in the 25 to 35 mph range through sundown. $$ Visit us at http://www.weather.gov/box Loconto
What forecasters said that day
The local office's own words before this wind advisory went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Boston/Norton, MA wrote its last area forecast discussion before this wind advisory went out at May 4, 7:08 AM EDT, 4 hours 35 minutes earlier. Its key messages:
- Breezy, warm, and dry day with elevated fire weather potential this afternoon.
- Warmer on Tuesday with a chance for showers and thunderstorms across far northwestern Massachusetts.
- Unsettled for the midweek timeframe with multiple chances for showers and embedded thunderstorms.
- Turning sharply cooler late in the week and into the weekend.
Area forecast discussion, May 4, 7:08 AM EDT, 4 hours 35 minutes before
Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Boston/Norton MA
708 AM EDT Mon May 4 2026
.WHAT HAS CHANGED...
No changes with the latest forecast update.
&&
.KEY MESSAGES...
- Breezy, warm, and dry day with elevated fire weather potential
this afternoon.
- Warmer on Tuesday with a chance for showers and thunderstorms
across far northwestern Massachusetts.
- Unsettled for the midweek timeframe with multiple chances for
showers and embedded thunderstorms.
- Turning sharply cooler late in the week and into the weekend.
&&
.DISCUSSION...
KEY MESSAGE 1... Breezy, warm, and dry day with elevated fire
weather potential this afternoon.
Cold start this morning for many of us as a few additional hours of
radiational cooling took place with less cloud cover than high-res
guidance initially advertised. Coldest spots this morning are
interior valleys with lows in the lower 30s. Quick warm up this
morning as 850mb temps soar from 0C to +6C by this afternoon. Given
the expected well mixed boundary layer up to 800mb with full sun,
expecting high temperatures in the upper 60s to low 70s in the CT
and Merrimack River Valleys. Coolest temps will be found along the
immediate south coast will be coolest in the low to mid 60s. Good
mixing also leads to a gusty day; with a 25-35kt 850mb jet overhead,
expecting to mix down gusts of 25 to 35 mph. This, combined with the
drier air (RH values down to 25-30 percent) has led us to issue a
Special Weather Statement for elevated fire weather potential
covering all of southern New England with the exception of Cape Cod
and the islands.
KEY MESSAGE 2... Warmer on Tuesday with a chance for showers and
thunderstorms across far northwestern Massachusetts.
Cold front slowly advances toward our CWA through the day on
Tuesday. At the same time, high pressure continues to build over the
Atlantic. The result will be a gusty SW winds and even warmer
temperatures away from the marine modified airmass towards the south
coast. 925T on the order of +17C/+18C should allow highs to reach
near 80 in the lower elevations northwest of I-95. The gusty
southwest winds will hold highs in the 60s near the south coast,
Cape and Islands. It is possible that Nantucket does not even break
60 degrees! Bufkit soundings support southwest wind gusts of 25 to
35 mph with a few gusts of 40-45 mph possible towards the upper Cape.
Mainly dry weather prevails Tue as most of the synoptic scale
forcing will remain well to our west in the vicinity of the cold
front. Still see at least a low risk for a thunderstorm or two
across western Massachusetts with CAPE values increasing to around
1000 J/kg Tuesday afternoon.
KEY MESSAGE 3...Unsettled for the midweek timeframe with multiple
chances for showers and embedded thunderstorms.
A slow moving cold front approaches the region from the west on Wed.
Still some timing differences...But we do expect a band of showers
to overspread the region from west to east as the day wears along.
This may take until mid-late afternoon to reach the I-95
corridor...but again the timing still needs to be worked out. There
might be an embedded t-storm or two as well...But instability does
not look to be high enough for any severe weather.
This cold front slowly sags south of our region Wed night into Thu
bringing cooler temps. In terms of the potential for a secondary
area of low pressure, the trend amongst guidance has been for a
solution further to the south of the CWA and thus more of a glancing
blow. The exact track of this low will have a significant impact on
temperatures during the day Thu depending on if we see rain or end
up mainly dry.
KEY MESSAGE 4...Turning sharply cooler late in the week and into the
weekend.
The long range ensembles are in good agreement in an upper trough
with below normal height fields re-establishing itself Fri into the
weekend. Modest westerly flow this time of year coupled with the
strong May sun angle should keep high temps near or just slightly
below normal though. Highs should still mainly be in the 60s. The
night/s will be potentially cool though with lows in the 40s and
potentially some 30s along with a frost risk if we have enough
clearing.
As for precipitation chances...some shortwave energy with the
associated upper trough/cold pool aloft may bring the potential for
a few showers at times. However...not expecting a washout with
plenty of dry weather expected as well over this time.
&&
.AVIATION /06Z MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY/...
Forecaster Confidence Levels...
Low - less than 30 percent.
Moderate - 30 to 60 percent.
High - greater than 60 percent.
12z TAF Update...No changes.
VFR conditions continue through Tue. SW winds increase later
this morning and especially in the afternoon with gusts on the
order of 25 to 35 knots with perhaps a few gusts near 40 knots
towards the typically prone locations near KFMH. The gusts
gradually diminish this evening...but still expect sustained
S-SW winds of 5 to 15 knots overnight with a few gusts up to 20
knots persisting. Areas of LLWS this evening and overnight
associated with a modest LLJ. SW gusts to 25-35 kt redevelop
Tue.
KBOS Terminal...High confidence in TAF.
KBDL Terminal...High confidence in TAF.
Outlook /Tuesday Night through Friday/...
Tuesday Night: VFR. Breezy. Slight chance SHRA.
Wednesday through Wednesday Night: Mainly VFR, with local IFR
possible. Breezy. Chance SHRA.
Thursday: VFR. Chance SHRA.
Thursday Night: Mainly VFR, with local IFR possible. Breezy.
Chance SHRA.
Friday: VFR. Breezy. Slight chance SHRA.
&&
.MARINE...
Forecaster Confidence Levels...
Low - less than 30 percent.
Moderate - 30 to 60 percent.
High - greater than 60 percent.
High confidence.
7 AM update...
We upgraded to a Gale Warning for the nearshore waters adjacent
to Cape cod for a period of 35+ kt wind gusts this afternoon as
a modest low level jet develops.
Through Tuesday...
Southwest winds today gusting 25-30 kts. Will also see seas
build to 4-6 feet across the outer waters . Given these
conditions, the Small Craft Advisory has been extended into
Tuesday for the outer waters and expanded into the inner waters
this afternoon. There is also a chance for near-gale force winds
across Buzzard's Bay as well as Nantucket Sound this afternoon.
Additional SCAs will likely be needed Tuesday.
Outlook /Tuesday Night through Friday/...
Tuesday Night: Moderate risk for Small Craft Advisory winds
with local gusts up to 30 kt. Rough seas up to 9 ft.
Wednesday: Moderate risk for Small Craft Advisory winds with
gusts up to 25 kt. Areas of rough seas. Chance of rain showers.
Wednesday Night: Low risk for Small Craft Advisory winds with
gusts up to 25 kt. Local rough seas. Chance of rain showers,
slight chance of thunderstorms.
Thursday: Winds less than 25 kt. Areas of seas approaching
5 ft. Chance of rain showers.
Thursday Night: Winds less than 25 kt. Areas of rough seas.
Chance of rain showers.
Friday: Winds less than 25 kt. Local rough seas. Slight chance
of rain showers.
&&
.BOX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
CT...None.
MA...None.
RI...None.
MARINE...Small Craft Advisory until 8 PM EDT this evening for ANZ230-
235>237-251.
Gale Warning from noon today to 7 PM EDT this evening for
ANZ231>234.
Small Craft Advisory until 8 AM EDT Tuesday for ANZ250-254>256.
&&
DISCUSSION...FT
AVIATION...KJC/FT
MARINE...KJC/FTIn the hours before
Special weather statement, May 4, 6:08 AM EDT, 5 hours 35 minutes before
Special Weather Statement National Weather Service Boston/Norton MA 608 AM EDT Mon May 4 2026 CTZ002>004-MAZ002>021-026-RIZ001>007-042300- Hartford CT-Tolland CT-Windham CT-Western Franklin MA- Eastern Franklin MA-Northern Worcester MA-Central Middlesex MA- Western Essex MA-Eastern Essex MA-Western Hampshire MA- Western Hampden MA-Eastern Hampshire MA-Eastern Hampden MA- Southern Worcester MA-Western Norfolk MA-Southeast Middlesex MA- Suffolk MA-Eastern Norfolk MA-Northern Bristol MA- Western Plymouth MA-Eastern Plymouth MA-Southern Bristol MA- Southern Plymouth MA-Northern Middlesex MA- Northwest Providence RI-Southeast Providence RI-Western Kent RI- Eastern Kent RI-Bristol RI-Washington RI-Newport RI- Including the cities of Hartford, Windsor Locks, Union, Vernon, Putnam, Willimantic, Charlemont, Greenfield, Orange, Barre, Fitchburg, Framingham, Lowell, Lawrence, Gloucester, Chesterfield, Blandford, Amherst, Northampton, Springfield, Milford, Worcester, Foxborough, Norwood, Cambridge, Boston, Quincy, Taunton, Brockton, Plymouth, Fall River, New Bedford, Mattapoisett, Ayer, Foster, Smithfield, Providence, Coventry, West Greenwich, East Greenwich, Warwick, West Warwick, Bristol, Narragansett, Westerly, and Newport 608 AM EDT Mon May 4 2026 ..ELEVATED FIRE WEATHER POTENTIAL TODAY IN SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND... The combination of southwest winds gusting to 30 to 35 mph, relative humidity as low as 25 to 35 percent, and a lack of significant rainfall over the past few days will lead to an elevated fire weather potential today.
The office that day
Everything else NWS Boston/Norton, MA issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 4, 7:04 AM EDT | Gale Warning | BOX | 12 hr | |
| May 4, 1:03 PM EDT | Gale Warning | BOX | 29 hr |
Nearby
Wind Advisories in Massachusetts, 2026Wind Advisories in Rhode Island, 2026Every wind advisory in 2026
Sources
The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.