Today was certainly the “calm before the storm”. Although cool, we saw plenty of sunshine. Tonight clouds will thicken up, but if you have plans tonight, you’ll be good to go as we will stay dry until tomorrow morning. However, you will wake up tomorrow with rain falling, as it gets started by sunrise. And it will rain all day on Saturday, sunrise to sunset, with heavy rain at times. Not only will we have the rain, but the wind as well. Saturday morning will be breezy, but tomorrow afternoon is when we see the damaging wind gusts arrive.
There are many concerns with this system from flooding to wind damage. As far as the wind – high wind warnings and wind advisories are in effect for wind gusts topping 55 mph at times, especially on the Cape and the Islands. Combine that wind with saturated ground from all of the rain, and downed trees, broken tree limbs, and downed power lines are likely.
Then there’s the flooding risk. With rainfall alone, Southeastern Mass, the Cape and the Islands are in line for 2-3″ of rain Saturday with the rest of us seeing 1-2″. For that reason, a Flash Flood Watch is in effect for SE Mass, the Cape, and the Islands. If you have time tonight, it might be a good idea to clear your rain gutters and storm drains near your house of any leaves or debris to allow that water to flow freely tomorrow. Boston and the North Shore are under a Coastal Flood Advisory as gusty northeast winds will inundate the coastline with water from the ocean. During high tide (1 PM) there will likely be water flowing on shore and some beach erosion as well. Finally, tomorrow would be a great day to stay away from the ocean all together as those gusty winds will churn up 6-11 foot waves.
Sunday will bring massive improvements. While it still won’t be the best of days, it will be a lot better from Saturday. We’ll still have a fair amount of cloud cover, and maybe an isolated shower, but no widespread rain and the winds will back off a ton – though still a little breezy on the Cape and the Islands.