Wicked winds that kicked into high gear last night, continue early this morning, especially at the coast. The wind gusts have been both impressive and destructive as hundreds of thousands of folks have lost power across eastern Mass as tree damage and downed lines have been widespread.
Peak wind gusts have pushed past 80mph in many communities with the highest gust in Edgartown at 94mph. Some of those highest gusts are in the graphics below.
While some of the top winds have been south of Boston, north of the city, we’ve also seen gusts surpass 70mph across Cape Ann and 40-60mph widespread around the Boston metro area.
Winds are slow to subside through the morning, but will gradually lower through the day. By midday, we’ll still have gusts around 50-60mph across the Cape and Islands, but we’ll be past peak. While still breezy, the winds are lower and mostly non damaging by the evening.
With the wind, has come the waves. Offshore buoys are running 24-28 foot waves with a report of 32 foot waves off Gloucester! Incredible waves heights for sure for buoys not all that far off the coast. The storm surge in Boston Harbor was 3.6 feet during the early morning high tide. We’re very fortunate that the high tide was astronomically on the low side. If this storm hit just 2 weeks ago when high tide was astronomically high, tide levels would have neared what we saw in the bomb cyclone of January 2018, which produce a record level tide. Coastal flooding would have been major thanks to the tide level and destructive wave action. So as powerful as this storm is, at least the astronomical tide levels were in our favor.
With all that said, we’ll still deal with minor coastal flooding and significant beach erosion during this afternoons high tide. A coastal flood advisory is in effect for that as vulnerable near shore roads that tend to flood, will likely flood.
Rain totals have run 1-3″ across much of the area with many towns likely landing between 2-4″ by the end of the storm. Showers linger through the afternoon.
We’ll catch some dry breaks Thursday – Friday before another storm brings rain and gusty winds Saturday. That storm won’t be nearly as strong as this one. Halloween looks decent, maybe a spot shower or two, but fairly mild, near 60. Halloween evening still looks mainly dry for those little ghosts and goblins.