Drenching downpours, whipping winds… all in the forecast today as a coastal low develops off the coast, just south of New England, bringing a late Spring Nor’easter to our region.
Showers increase coverage area this morning and by midday, most towns and cities experience steady rain. This afternoon, the intensity of the rain picks up with embedded downpours producing big puddles on the roads and some standing water in poor drainage areas. The locally heavy rain continues into this evening before tapering off the scattered showers overnight. All said and done, most towns and cities pick up 1-2″ of rain with localized pockets of 2-3″ possible where the heaviest bands of rain set up.
You can’t have a Nor’easter without the northeast wind, and that will increase in speed through the day. Winds peak this afternoon and this evening, with gusts 25-40mph inland and 40-55mph at the coast. The strongest gusts will likely be across Cape Ann and Cape Cod, especially out near the National Seashore. Isolated tree damage/power outages are possible.
With the wind coming in off the water, the ocean water will get pushed back toward the coast. We’ll keep an eye on this evening’s high tide around 8pm. A couple hours going into it and a couple hours coming out of it, we’ll watch for some minor coastal flooding and inundation of some ocean water to typical vulnerable nearshore roads.
A few scattered showers linger into tomorrow morning with a mainly dry afternoon settling in. It’ll still be cool and mostly cloudy, but somewhat improved.
We’ll likely track another patch of showers tomorrow night into Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon looks more dry than wet.
Sunday and Monday continue to see gradual improvements with Memorial Day being a bit milder than the rest. While a few isolated pop-up showers are possible Monday, we’ll find many more dry hours than wet to end the holiday weekend.
