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Jennifer Walsh captured the rainbow after one rain shower this afternoon and just before another one.

That's the latest National Weather Service thinking for a storm that could hit us starting Sunday night.

However, the NWS warns us a much stronger storm might whack us Tuesday into Wednesday, which no rhyme can handle: "SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF RAIN AND/OR SNOW WOULD BE POSSIBLE."

Matt Laskowski looked out his window this morning at a monsoon along Comm. Ave. in Allston. He reports:

Juan Boria, Jr. captured the scene inside the Quincy Center Red Line station this morning.

The National Weather Service ALERTS US:

THUNDERSTORMS MAY DEVELOP ACROSS SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND BETWEEN NOON AND 2 PM...THEN BECOME MORE NUMEROUS DURING THE MID AND LATE AFTERNOON. SOME STORMS WILL LIKELY CONTAIN STRONG OR DAMAGING WINDS. THEY WILL ALSO CONTAIN TORRENTIAL DOWNPOURS WHICH MAY CAUSE SMALL STREAM AND POOR DRAINAGE FLOODING. THERE IS A MUCH LOWER CHANCE OF TORNADOES...BUT IT IS A CHANCE WORTH MENTIONING.

Pouring on State Street.

Paul Levy, who lives near a soccer field in Newton, looked out and saw something disturbing:

Today, as storms approached and lightning and thunder were clearly in close range, the coaches of our boys and girls teams kept practicing with the children.

Some flooding in Watertown.

The National Weather Service has issued a flash-flood watch for 4 p.m. this afternoon for eastern Massachusetts:

SUDDEN HEAVY DOWNPOURS WILL OCCUR WITH ANY THUNDERSTORMS LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. RAINFALL OF 2 TO 4 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE WITHIN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME.

Barry Burbank prognosticates for today and tomorrow.

Tim Sackton photographed the post-storm sky over Cambridge yesterday.

Posted under this Creative Commons license and in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Hail falling behind Saugus Town Hall.

Marc Choquette posted this photo from Arlington, reports:

Looks like an absolute war zone in Arlington right now.

The National Weather Service's Skywarn network reports:

Mike Miccoli reported from Government Center at the height of one of the afternoon's storms:

Turnstiles at Govt Center aren't working. Of course, there are millions of tourists confused. Now I know what hell looks like.

Line to get into Govt Center is backed up into the rain. Of course, there's only one frantic employee trying to manually open each one.

Thankfully a true Bostonian used his hand to enter thru turnstile and let everyone in. MBTA worker not pleased, but hey, problem solved!

Photo of some real fireworks by Tmccool.

State officials started evacuating the Esplanade around 9:30 as a potentially violent thunderstorm headed toward the thousands of people crammed in there for the Pops concert and fireworks. Channel 5 reports many sang "God Bless America" as they filed into the Storrow Drive tunnel. Concertgoers on the Boston side were also given shelter in the Hynes Convention Center garage.

The storm, however, passed the Esplanade by and shortly after 10 p.m., state and Boston police began letting people back onto the Esplanade, after the National Weather Service declared the area safe again.

WBZ meteorologist Barry Burbank tweets authorities made the right call:

Bottom line is safety of every person. With the frequent vivid lightning nearby, officials called the evacuation then the storm died!

Saul B. took this photo by South Station this afternoon.

Some more storm photos, including one of the start of a funnel cloud over Nahant:

R.S.Y. Buchanan photographed this ominous cloud outside his Cambridge office around 2:10 p.m.

Copyright R.S.Y. Buchanan. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Anne of No Gables took this picture of impending doom out the window of her office in the Hancock building this afternoon.

Will the state have to roll out this sign again? Photo by Lauren Glynn.

The National Weather Service has issued a high surf advisory for the Massachusetts coast for tomorrow, with surf of three to five feet possible. Do yourself a favor, the NWS advises, and stay way the hell away from the pounding surf:

VIEWERS OF LARGE SURF SHOULD BE IN SAFE AREAS WELL AWAY FROM POSSIBLE SPLASH OVER. INDIVIDUAL WAVES MAY BE MORE THAN TWICE THE SIGNIFICANT WAVE HEIGHT...WHICH CAN SWEEP A PERSON INTO THE WATER FROM WHAT MAY SEEM TO BE A SAFE VIEWING AREA. FALLING INTO THE TURBULENT AND SOMETIMES ROCKY WATERS CAN RESULT IN INJURY THAT REDUCES THE CHANCE OF SURVIVAL.

Daniel Brim captured a double rainbow over Lynn this afternoon.

Boston has canceled street sweeping for tonight and tomorrow due to the predicted heavy rain.

The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for eastern Massachusetts (actually, pretty much the entire state) starting Sunday night.

Greg MacKay wandered around downtown just before today's hail storm.

Copyright Greg MacKay. Tagged as universalhub on Flickr.

Views of the Northeast enjoyed the rushing waters of Porter station today.

Copyright Views of the Northeast. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Good Morning Gloucester has the Webcam pics to prove it.

Also, just like the state warned us, Morrissey Boulevard is closed due to wicked high tides, as Lauren Glynn shows us:

Roads in eastern Massachusetts became parking lots this morning. An 18-wheeler ran off the road on 93 south in Dorchester, a bad crash shut Hyde Park Avenue at Metropolitan Avenue and the Jamaicaway ground to a standstill.

Storm rakes the Back Bay. Photo by Drew.

An astonished Government Center worker e-mailed about the hail around 3:30 p.m. To be more exact, he wrote:

HAILSTONES THE SIZE OF GUMBALLS IN GOV'T CENTER!!!

At least one hailstone the size of a golf ball came down on Washington Street in Downtown Crossing - look at the size of that thing at the end of this video.

Elsewhere, reports poured in end-of-days torrents and pea-sized hail from the Fenway to Chinatown.

A state trooper and police dog were in a cruiser hit by lightning on Perimeter Road at Logan Airport. Both are reported OK, however.

A tree came down on Dartmouth Street near Warren in the South End.

Ground-eye view of the storm, from the BPL main library. Photo by Penny Cherubino.

Ed. note: No hail here on the Roslindale/Hyde Park frontier, but tons of thunder and lightning.