If you made it outside at all today, you know how calm and sunny it was. This was the half of the weekend that was the PICK of the weekend. An absolute “stunnah” of a fall day – with highs in the mid to upper 60s and mostly sunny skies. Maybe you were woken up by some weather alerts this morning and wondered, “how in the heck?!” since it was so CALM today. Well, those alerts were WATCHES that were issued in preparation for our potent coastal storm that works into the picture tomorrow. When a “Watch” is issued, it means we’re “watching out for” inclement weather. In this case, a Flash Flood WATCH and a High Wind WATCH were issued early this morning.
That High Wind Watch has been upgraded to a High Wind WARNING for E. Massachusetts, meaning there’s high confidence the area will experience high winds. This goes into effect at 6pm tomorrow until 6am Monday morning. Winds will be strengthening throughout the day tomorrow and will peak at gusts up to 65mph (possibly even higher for Cape Ann, Cape Cod and the islands) overnight. There will likely be several damage reports as well as scattered power outages… especially with most of the leaves still on the trees, which exacerbates the problem.
While the High Wind Warning is set to expire at 6am Monday, the wind will still howl throughout the day Monday – but will be blasting out of the west. Gusts 30-55mph are in store for inland areas where there is a High Wind Watch in effect.
Also, a Flash Flood Watch has been posted for most of New England. Due to the tropical moisture that will be streaming in from the south, tropical downpours are likely. Too much rain too quickly could lead to flash flooding. This system will bring a widespread 1-3″ of rain, but there will likely be spots that get closer to 4″ (perhaps even 5″) of rain. Most of the heavy stuff is over by about 5am Monday, but the early Monday morning commuters may get caught in some delays due to the rain that’s fallen overnight. Remember, “turn around, don’t drown.”
The heaviest rain is in store for the overnight hours tomorrow night – so much of the day does look dry. If you’re planning on going to the game at Gillette – better to have the rain gear than not, and want it… but there’s only a chance of showers through the second half of the game. Most of the game (maybe all) should be dry. You’ll notice the winds kicking into gear though… no doubt about that.
In terms of coastal flooding, despite the howling winds, we have a few things going for us. 1) Tides are astronomically low. 2) Wind changes direction from SE to S to SW to W. 3) It’s a fast moving system. The combination of all 3 factors limit storm surge to 1-3′, which considering the tides astronomically low and winds peak at low tide, we’ll catch some splash-over but no significant coastal flooding is expected.
Halloween still looks good for the little ghosts and goblins! See you tomorrow… We’ll be very busy tracking the latest updates with this potent coastal storm and we’ll “weather” it together. – Breezy