Hurricane watches as well as storm surge warnings have been issued for the southern coastline of New England.
For your Friday evening plans, it’s the calm before the storm, the storm being Tropical Storm Henri which is nearly 700 miles south of Nantucket. Henri is expected to strengthen to hurricane status within the next 12 hours.
Saturday is mainly cloudy (similar to Friday) with highs into the low to mid 80s (a touch cooler at the coast) and we’ll start to notice some rough surf along the immediate coastline. Farther inland we could see a few isolated showers/thunderstorms in the afternoon.
Early Sunday is when we could see the leading edge of the outer rain bands of Henri as it approaches southern New England from the south.
The latest 5PM update from the National Hurricane Center shifted the track even further west than the previous two advisories, which shifts the heaviest rain to the Berkshires and western MA, strongest gusts along and east of the track.
With the latest update, Henri could make landfall as a hurricane Sunday afternoon along the Long Island before moving towards the CT coastline, while continuing to weaken back to a tropical storm as it moves inland.
We’re looking at widespread 30-40 mph gusts for much of the Bay State, South Coast towards the RI coastline and southern CT could see gusts 50-60 mph. With the fully leafed trees and the water logged soil, downed trees and power lines will be a concern leading to power outages.
Another concern is storm surge for our coastal communities, especially the southern coastline. If storm surge pairs up with the astronomical high tides, a 3-5 ft storm surge is possible for the South Coast and the southern facing coast of the Cape and Islands.
As the storm lifts off to the north and continues to weaken, Monday could still see a few scattered downpours, then we should see drier conditions through midweek with highs into the low 80s.
