At least the first half of our Saturday is dry, but it will be under cloudy and gray skies. These clouds are associated with the system that will be bringing rain to us later this evening.
Ahead of the soaking rainfall tonight, a Flood Watch has been issued for the NH seacoast and portions of southern Maine due to snowmelt coupled up with the heavy rainfall, there could be some ponding on the roadways, so exercise some caution through your Saturday evening travels.
Now let’s talk timing. A few spot showers likely, mainly for the interior, by mid-afternoon, ahead of the leading edge of rain.
Between 7pm and 11pm is when we see the pockets of heavy downpours and steady rain. Overall, we’re looking at a half inch to an inch of rainfall across the region in a 3 to 6 hour period.
The rain lifts northward after midnight, allowing for drier conditions to prevail into Sunday, including the return to sunshine.
With these downpours, not only is ponding on the roadways possible, but we’re also tracking some gusty winds possible at the coastline as this system swings in. Gusts could top out between 30-40 mph.
As for the rainfall, we do need the rain. So far this month, we’ve seen nearly 0.7″ of rainfall, which is nearly two inches below normal. And there’s no denying that we are much warmer this month, since we’ve seen two 70° days…we’re at least 8° above normal so far this January. With the recent temperature swings, January has felt more like spring (almost March-like) than the middle of winter.
It doesn’t look much like winter in the next 7-days either, besides the cold that slides in Thursday, we’re relatively seasonable or above average for the last week of January.
