NBC Connecticut Meteorologists are monitoring the threat for thunderstorms as we progress through the evening.

Thunderstorms that do develop will include heavy rain, frequent lightning, and gusty winds. 

There is a small for for a few thunderstorms to be on the strong to severe side with hail and damaging wind gusts.

Stay with the First Alert Weather team for updates.

President Donald Trump confirmed on Sunday that he's "interested" in buying Greenland. The only problem? It's not actually for sale, NBC News reports.

"It's something we talked about," he told reporters on Sunday. "Denmark essentially owns it, we're very good allies with Denmark." Referring to the theoretical transaction as "essentially" a "large real estate deal," Trump said that "strategically it's interesting and we'd be interested, but we'll talk to them a little bit." While he acknowledged that "first we have to find out whether or not they have any interest," he said that, "they're losing a tremendous amount of money, so we'll see what happens."

But officials in Greenland have repeatedly said that it's not for sale. And Denmark confirmed on Sunday that it's not interested in selling the island.

“Greenland is not for sale," Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told the newspaper Sermitsiag on Sunday. "Greenland is not Danish. Greenland belongs to Greenland. I strongly hope that this is not meant seriously."

Thousands of union workers at a western Pennsylvania petrochemical plant were given a choice last week — show up for President Donald Trump's speech on Wednesday or stay home and lose some of their weekly pay, NBC News reports.

One of the construction site's contractors wrote in rules for the speech ahead of the event that employees' attendance was "not mandatory," though it said only those who arrived at 7 a.m. with their work IDs scanned and stood for hours to wait for the president would be paid for their time.

“NO SCAN, NO PAY,” those rules, which were handed out to employees prior to the speech, read. That memo was first reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which noted that those who opted against attending Trump's address would have an excused, unpaid absence and would not qualify for overtime pay on Friday. The publication reported workers were told "anything viewed as resistance" to Trump was prohibited. The speech was arranged to foster "good will" with building trade unions, The Post-Gazette added.

Ray Fisher, a spokesman for Shell, told NBC News in an email that workers who opted to stay away from the speech would still be paid for the week, but less than those who scanned in and were on site Wednesday.

Palestinians shared sweet and sometimes harrowing stories of their grandmother's lives on social media Saturday after Michigan Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib announced she wouldn't be visiting her grandmother in the West Bank, NBC News reports.

Tlaib announced Friday she would not visit her grandmother in the West Bank after Israel placed what she called "oppressive conditions" on her trip. Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said in a statement that Israel had decided to approve Tlaib's entry for "a humanitarian visit" to her grandmother.

"I approved her request as a gesture of goodwill on a humanitarian basis, but it was just a provocative request, aimed at bashing the State of Israel. Apparently her hate for Israel overcomes her love for her grandmother," Deri said in a tweet Friday.

In response, social media users took to Twitter to post the stories of their Palestinian grandmothers, many of whom survived war. The hashtag #MyPalestinianSitty began to trend, as "sitty" is the Arabic word for "my grandmother." Tlaib and Omar retweeted and liked many of the posts.

"#MyPalestinianSitty is trending and I am overcome with emotions realizing how we are finally humanizing one of the world’s most dehumanized peoples," Omar tweeted Saturday. 

A colossal telescope with the potential to revolutionize astronomy and reveal extraterrestrial life is set for construction atop a dormant volcano on Hawaii's Big Island, NBC News reports.

But protesters have blocked the road to the summit since July, saying the planned telescope — called the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) for the diameter of its huge light-collecting mirror — would desecrate a place that Native Hawaiians deem sacred.

The impasse comes at a crucial moment for astronomers, who have maxed out the abilities of existing ground-based telescopes like Hawaii's Keck Observatory and the Gran Telescopio Canarias in the Canary Islands. Big as they are, existing telescopes' comparatively puny mirrors limit their ability to scan light from planets orbiting stars beyond our solar system; astronomers believe these exoplanets hold the answer to the question of whether life on Earth has company elsewhere in the cosmos.

Sunday kicked off a week when you don’t have to pay sales tax on most clothing and footwear in Connecticut.

And it’s timed to help families doing back-to-school shopping.

“You get some extra money off, so that’s good. A little incentive to come out,” said Matthew Bahre, of Meriden.

Bahre, who is headed to UConn, is happy to save some his hard-earned money working this summer at a golf course in Meriden.

He and many others took advantage of the state’s so-called tax holiday.

“School shopping for some clothes, bring to college with me. Tax free that’s a plus. Came out here for that,” Bahre.

For one week starting Sunday, shoppers don’t have to pay the state’s sales tax at stores when buying most clothes and footwear.

Each item just has to be under $100 to be considered exempt.

“We’ll probably find something to buy,” said Riley Liistro, of Terryville.

Liistro is headed into her sophomore year in high school.

And she thinks it’s great to have what amounts to a little bit of a discount as she browses for back-to-school outfits.

“I’ve got a couple already, but I might find something else too,” said Liistro.

Governor Ned Lamont says the tax-free week was part of the recently signed budget.

He estimates it will save shoppers nearly $5-million.

And Sheron Davidson of Hartford is thankful to keep a little bit of her money this week.

“A little bit of a break is good. Yes, it’s definitely good to get a break. We all deserve it. Working hard. Every little thing adds up,” said Davidson.

The tax-free week runs through Saturday, August 24.

On Sunday, community members rallied to support a young woman from West Haven.

Gabby Murillo was paralyzed after a horrific crash just weeks after her dream internship at Disney came true.

For Gabby’s family, there is so much to think about, from special equipment for their home to nursing care.

And on Sunday, people again stepped up to shoulder some of the cost.

“To just have everyone here and be like a community and to rally together to us is amazing,” said Amanda Maurutis.

Maurutis was thrilled by the outpouring of support for her sister, Gabby. At Barcode in Orange, community members turned out for a fundraiser.

“It’s hard but we’re taking it day by day and we have hope Gabby will be home soon and we will all be together again,” said Jennifer Murillo, Gabby’s sister.

Right now, Gabby is in a rehab facility in Atlanta after being in intensive care for weeks.

Back in June, after starting a dream internship at Walt Disney World, she was in a terrible car crash in Orlando and was left paralyzed.

“It was just horrific. But the prayers, the healing, everyone is praying for her,” said Carol Maurutis of Milford.

Gabby’s family says she’s made great progress.

But the process has been tough which got some friends of the family thinking about how to help.

“Nobody prepares for it both emotionally nor financially,” said Moriah Conlan, of West Haven.

“I think every dollar counts and this is exactly what we’re trying to do. Anything we can no matter the amount it’s going to help,” said Holly Hume of West Haven.

Gabby’s family is thankful for the help.

And they can’t wait for her to return to the community which truly has embraced “Gabby Strong.”

“Once they get back here, it’s going to be hard. It’s going to be different but we’re going to be happy to be together really,” said Amanda Maurutis.

The family has been told just her first year of medical expenses could reach more than a million dollars.

A man from Canaan has died after a crash on Route 7 in North Canaan late Sunday night.

Police said 46-year-old Matthew Holderman, of Canaan, was driving north on Route 7 near Sand Road around 10:20 p.m.

Holderman was driving on a curve when he lost control, left the road, hit a set of mailboxes and a utility pole and then flipped his vehicle, according to authorities.

Officers said Holderman was trapped in the vehicle and was later pronounced dead at the scene.

Route 7 near the Canaan Country Club is expected to be closed for the foreseeable future, authorities said. Detours are set up in the area.

There is no estimate for when the road will reopen.

Anyone with information is urged to contact TPR LaPointe at Troop B.

A man is at the hospital after being pulled from the water at Lake Mohegan in Fairfield on Sunday night.

Dispatchers received numerous calls reporting a swimmer in distress at Lake Mohegan around 6:45 p.m.

When first responders arrived to the scene, they said they received reports of a 34-year-old man in the water who was having difficulty getting back to shore.

A number of civilians and family members attempted to help the swimmer get back to the shore, but were not able to keep him above the water line, police said.

Firefighters and police divers quickly entered the water and attempted to rescue the swimmer, authorities added.

At 7:20 p.m., divers found the man below the water line and brought him back to the surface, according to police.

Once he was on shore, crews performed advanced life saving efforts on the unresponsive man, who was then transported to an area hospital for further treatment.

A family member of the swimmer was also transported to the hospital for treatment after he or she was overcome as the events unfolded, officers added.

A stunt pilot whose plane crashed in New Orleans last week, killing him and local television journalist Nancy Parker, reported unspecified problems shortly after taking off, NBC News reported. 

The pilot, Franklin J.P. Augustus, had been cleared to return to New Orleans' Lakefront Airport when the aircraft struck the ground in a nearby field, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement Saturday. 

The crash also killed Parker, 53, an award-winning anchor with a local Fox affiliate. Parker, who earned five Emmy Awards for her work as a journalist, was reporting a story on Augustus when she died. 

Parker was a fixture in New Orleans and at the station she worked at for 23 years. Her colleagues choked back tears as they shared news of the fatal accident during their newscast.

Officers are investigating after a man was shot in the spine in New Haven early Monday morning.

Police said it happened on Greenwich Avenue and 2nd Street.

According to authorities, the man is in critical condition and is in the operating room at a local hospital.

This is a developing story. NBC Connecticut will update this story as details become available.

A New Jersey doctor fell off a cliff to his death while vacationing with his fiancee on the Spanish island of Ibiza, authorities say. 

Daniel Sirovich, a 33-year-old from Kearny, was hiking near a cliff on the Balearic island with his fiancee when he slipped and fell 82 feet to his death. The Spanish Civil Guard confirmed the accident on the cliff of Atlantis. 

The two had been set to get married next year; Sirovich had been scheduled to move to Boston early next month to be an intensive care trauma unit doctor, his "ultimate" life goal, according to a GoFundMe page. 

Grieving loved ones described Sirovich on the page as a man who "gave 120 percent in everything he did, from his studies, to work, to loving Kristi, his family and friends." 

The page has already raised more than $44,240; they had been seeking just $30,000 to help return his body to the U.S. for a funeral.

According to NJ.com, Sirovich studied medicine at Rutgers and had just wrapped up a program at a teaching hospital and trauma center in Miami. He met his fiancee in South Florida about seven years ago, the website reported.

Shelton Police have arrested a man who is accused of sexually assaulting a teen girl multiple times.

Officers arrested 37-year-old Pawel Dabrowski, of Shelton, on Friday after an investigation.

Dabrowski is accused of sexually assaulting a teen-aged girl that he knew. The sexual assaults began when the girl was 10 years old, police said.

He is being charged with three counts of first-degree sexual assault and three counts of risk of injury to a minor.

Dabrowski was arraigned in Derby Superior Court on Friday and was held on $250,000 bond.

Michelle Troconis appeared in a Stamford courthouse on Monday morning to face evidence tampering and hindering prosecution charges in connection with the disappearance of New Canaan mom, Jennifer Dulos.

Troconis and her lawyer appeared in court and asked for a continuance. Her court appearances are typically short, but Monday's lasted a total of 28 seconds.

Monday's appearance was a continuance from her pre-trial hearing in July.

The main piece of evidence the state has is surveillance video from the day Jennifer disappeared.

Court documents say the surveillance video appears to show a man and woman matching the description of Troconis and Fotis Dulos dumping several trash bags in bins along Albany Avenue in Hartford.

Investigators found a kitchen sponge and a piece of clothing soaked in Jennifer's blood.

Police charged both Troconis and Dulos with evidence tampering and hindering prosecution. Both pleaded not guilty and have been out on bond.

The judge agreed to move Troconis' next court appearance to September 20.

NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill is expected to make an announcement Monday on the fate of the police officer accused of using a banned chokehold on Eric Garner in 2014. A departmental trial judge recommended termination earlier this month after weeks of testimony. 

O'Neill's decision, expected early Monday afternoon, will be final, closing the years-long book on embattled NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo, whom a local grand jury and federal prosecuters all declined to criminally prosecute. Late last week, News 4 had reported that the number two official at the NYPD had accepted the judge's ruling that Pantaleo lose his job and handed the findings over to O'Neill.  

At least one lingering question: Should O'Neill fire Pantaleo, will the officer keep his 13-year vested pension? 

A spokesman for the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, Al O'Leary, posed another question to News 4 ahead of the anticipated decision: Regarding O'Neill, "Does he have the heart of a politician or the heart of a police officer?"

The police union has planned a news briefing for later Monday afternoon, while Garner's family also plans to speak to the press. 

On Aug. 2, an NYPD trial judge found Pantaleo guilty of "reckless assault" when he used an impermissible chokehold on Garner, a 43-year-old Staten Island father, two sources previously told NBC 4 New York at the time. She found the officer not guilty of "intentional strangulation." An autopsy had found Garner's death was caused in part by a chokehold, ruling the case a homicide. 

The NYPD had suspended Pantaleo for 30 days without pay, effective immediately, following the judge’s recommendation. For Garner's daughter, Emerald, that ruling was bittersweet.

"This has been a long battle, five years too long, and finally someone has said there is information this cop did something wrong," she said following the judge's initial recommendation. "It's been way too long to say he did something wrong."

Mayor de Blasio, who has come under aggressive criticism during his presidential campaign for not firing Pantaleo (which, as a matter of law, he cannot do), cheered the judge’s ruling earlier this month.

Following the recommendation to fire Pantaleo, his lawyer, Stuart London, maintained that the officer's case had been won in the courtroom but lost due entirely to politics. However, London previously said he remained "cautiously optimistic" that Pantaleo wouldn't be fired.

The chokehold or no-chokehold debate was the crux of the entire case against Pantaleo. Prosecutors had argued the video, which captured Garner's dying words, "I can't breathe," clearly showed Pantaleo use a banned chokehold -- and the medical examiner's autopsy report listed a chokehold as the cause of his death. Health factors, including obesity and high blood pressure, were mentioned as contributing factors in that report.

Defense attorneys submitted at trial that the move Pantaleo was seen using was not an illegal chokehold, but a department-approved takedown move used to subdue suspects resisting arrest -- and that his arm was not around Garner's neck when he said, repeatedly, "I can't breathe."

His words became a rallying cry for the national movement against police brutality. Garner's family received $5.9 million from the city in 2015 to settle a wrongful death claim.

Meriden police are looking for help in finding a missing woman.

Perrie Mason, 31, was reported missing and police are trying to determine when and where she was last seen.

Mason is described as African-American with a light complexion. She is 4-feet, 11-inches tall and 130 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information on Mason's whereabouts is asked to call Meriden Police Detective Femia at (203) 630-6219.

NBC Connecticut meteorologists are tracking storms that could bring heavy downpours, damaging winds and vivid lightning to the state on Monday afternoon.

Thunderstorms will roll in around 4 p.m. in the western part of the state and will move east.

More storms form around 6 p.m. in southern Connecticut and will move north.

Conditions will be very changeable on Monday afternoon. The storms could bring vivid lightning, heavy downpours and damaging winds.

Overnight, a drier air mass will move in and make way for a warm and sunny day on Tuesday with temperatures around 90.

Our next chance for storms comes on Wednesday and Thursday where scattered storms are possible.

 Track the weather anytime in your town by clicking here.

A fatal tractor-trailer crash has shut down the southbound lanes of I-395 in Norwich.

The highway is closed by Exit 14, according to state police.  One lane of the northbound side is also closed, as is Route 2 East to I-395 South, police said.

The crash happened near Exit 11.

There are no details on who died in the crash.  The highway is expected to be closed for several hours.

A man says crew members on a SkyWest Airlines flight refused to allow his brother with autism to sit near a family member Friday and walked off the plane, forcing all 75 passengers to deplane and board another flight three hours later. Now, the crew, including the pilots, have been grounded while the airline investigates the incident, NBC News reports.

Ayomide Isola, 23, was on SkyWest flight 3596 from Detroit to Houston with his mother, sister and 21-year-old brother, Tayo, who is nonverbal and unable to express himself. SkyWest is a connection carrier for Delta and other major airlines.

SkyWest acknowledged the flight experienced a delay boarding "as a result of an issue regarding customer seat assignments," and said it was investigating the incident.

"We are committed to providing exceptional onboard service to all of our customers and are working with our partner Delta to reach out to the customers," a spokeswoman said.

Delta said in a statement Monday that it was reviewing the details of the incident to "better understand what happened." 

The NBC Connecticut and Telemundo Connecticut Clear the Shelters event over the weekend was a huge success.

In Connecticut, 29 shelters participated and 1,452 pets have been adopted.

At the Connecticut Humane Society in Newington, there were long lines of families looking to adopt.

"It means giving pets deserving homes and we could not be more thrilled with the success of the event on Saturday. The Connecticut Humane Society adopted 102 pets - mostly cats, dogs, puppies, and kittens thankfully some of our guinea pigs as well," explained Alicia Wright of the Connecticut Humane Society.

All but one of the 37 cats at the Newington shelter were adopted. The one left behind is named Blue.

"Blue is one year old. She has been with us for a little more than a month. She came in with her kittens. Of course her kittens went home, but Blue is having a little bit of a harder time," Wright said.

Other crates are clear. All but Blue.

"I came here to look for a puppy for my kids. But I'm kind of sad because there's only one cat. And I'm a cat person," Hartford resident Sashane Phillips said.

Phillips said her heart goes out to Blue.

"I feel bad because it's kind of not fair no friends, nobody to look at."

"Blue likes her private time. She gets a little bit hissy when new friends come around. We're looking for a quiet home for a Blue and maybe kids over 10 would probably be best. But she's a lovely cat and we believe that once she gets comfortable in your home she is going to make an absolutely wonderful companion," Wright said.

Although the Clear the Shelters event happened over the weekend, the initiative continues all year.

For more information, click here.