A powerful storm system is evolving as the hours roll along today. Periods of storms this afternoon and evening could contain strong, damaging wind and heavy downpours, hail and rotation.

A narrow and long-spanning line of rain and storms heads to town from Western New York early today and will linger in Eastern New York this afternoon and evening.

While we've seen some isolated, strong storms in the Adirondacks this morning, the busier time frame will be this afternoon through the early evening hours.

A trough has slipped in ahead of the surface cold front, and we have an unstable environment with high humidity and breaks of hazy sunshine. With humid air in place, dew points in the 60s to near 70, we are primed for stormy conditions.

Weather indices denote a substantial vertical wind shear, a change in wind speed with height, and this means strong storms are likely as mid-and-upper level energy travels nearly parallel to the cold front this afternoon.

Severe thunderstorms are forecast to pop along and ahead of the front and continue to develop on and off from west to east this afternoon through the mid-evening.

Storms likely line up in narrow bands and might contain damaging wind gusts over 50 or 60 miles per hour. Expect repeated bouts of heavy downpours, hail and possibly a tornado or two.

While the entire portion of Eastern New York is in line for severe storms, it looks like counties just north and east, like Warren, Saratoga, Washington, northern Rensselaer and northern Berkshire counties, could see the biggest impacts. 

There will also be lingering thundery, non-severe heavy downpours continuing into the overnight, especially from the Capital Region to the Hudson Valley.