Hurricane Lee continues its northward journey. The center of the storm will continue to stay offshore. The Mid/Outer Cape and Nantucket will experience the biggest impacts from the storm, while inland there will be less of an impact. This will be a 12-hour storm with timing from midnight to midday tomorrow.
As of the latest 5 pm update, Lee is still a category 1 storm. The center is about 290 miles southeast of Nantucket. The storm has picked up forward speed. Over the next 24 hours, it will continue to weaken and veer toward Nova Scotia. The center of the storm stays well to our east, but the impacts will reach Southern New England.
We saw thickening cloud cover today from Lee. Rain arrives for Cape Cod and Nantucket tonight. Rain continues overnight there and along the coast as the western edge of the storm backs in across southern New England. Rain favors the Cape and Nantucket through the morning. As the wind turns more northwest, the dry air will eat away at the showers. By the afternoon, the rain is out of here. Our rain map is shown below. The farther west you are, you’ll just get spotty showers.
One of the bigger threats with the storm is wind. Already today it was breezy and gusty on the Cape. That was because we were in between high pressure to our west and Hurricane Lee to our east. The wind peaks tomorrow morning. The strongest wind will be on Cape Cod from Provincetown to Chatham and on Nantucket. From Cape Ann to Boston and down to the South Shore, Buzzard’s Bay and Upper Cape, gusts could be 40-50 mph. Inland, your strongest wind will likely come in the afternoon on the backside of the storm with gusts near 40 mph. Prepare tonight for power outages. Trees still have their leaves, and the wind could bring down tree limbs. The ground is also saturated with all the recent rain, and tree roots are more susceptible to being uprooted. Scattered outages are possible on the coast and isolated outages are possible inland.
A Coastal Flood Warning is in place for Cape Cod Bay and Nantucket. Minor to moderate flooding could occur around both high tides tomorrow. A Coastal Flood Advisory is up for the coast for the North Shore to South Shore and the Vineyard for minor flooding and splashover, especially around the 1 pm high tide. Below are what those “minor” and “moderate” categories mean if your town is in those areas.
Waves were already choppy today. Waves continue to build tomorrow. Some heights could be near 30 feet! Tomorrow is not a day to be out on the jetties wave watching.
Sunday will be superb! We’ll be dry with sunshine and mild temperatures. Monday will live up to its name with muggy air and scattered showers.
Clouds clear through Tuesday with less humidity. High pressure settles in the rest of the week with comfortable air and temperatures in the 70s. It’s almost fall!
-Meteorologist Melanie Black