It’s been a long and wild day of weather, and we’re not done yet. Just to start the blog, here’s a re-cap of what we’ve seen so far today:
Anything 74mph+ is considered “hurricane-force,” when it comes to wind. Here’s a list of some locations that made it into the “hurricane-force” club today:
*** It should be noted that as I am typing this blog, a wind gust report of 93mph has come out of Barnstable. WOW.
By the way, there are always a lot of questions when we have a storm this powerful, having to do with a comparison to hurricanes. Hurricanes and nor’easters are two different beasts. I saw it best/most concisely put on Twitter by a fellow meteorologist earlier today:
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How about that mid-day high tide? Currently sitting at the 3rd highest on record for Boston… but we do expect that tonight’s high tide (around midnight) will be higher than mid-day today:
But again, we’re not done yet. In fact, the wind is still ramping up, with the worst of it expected in the next few hours. Plus, as mentioned before, the high tide tonight around midnight is expected to be higher than what we experienced earlier today. Much of that water hasn’t had a chance to get back out into the ocean in the meantime, and more water will pile up on top of that (btw, it probably goes without mentioning but astronomical high tides come along with a full moon).
Highest risk for major coastal flooding is shown in red:
And this list shows many of the areas (but not all) – the spots with a * are spots expected to set records with tonight’s high tide:
Added to all of that wind and water we’ve been talking about today would be 2-5″ of rain that has come down across the area. You may be well away from the coastline, but still find yourself confronted with areas of flooding/poor drainage. Never, ever try to drive through standing water. We even had video on #7News earlier today of a vehicle that had to be towed out of a dangerous situation when they drove through standing water only to find there was no road beneath it!
So, where’s the snow with this nor’easter? Well, reports out of the Berkshires have been impressive! Over a foot of snow has fallen in Western Massachusetts today… but for the rest of us, mainly rain. There will still likely be a changeover this evening – as JR put it earlier, “delayed but not denied.” Though, we don’t expect much accumulation… maybe a couple of inches south and west of Boston.
Okay – so once again, still a ways to go with this one. Watching out for high tide tonight around midnight and then again tomorrow around mid-day. There could be some lingering rain/snow showers for the coast tomorrow early, but for Saturday the storm is more about the continued wind. Today in New England will start early tomorrow morning at 6am for continuing coverage of this wicked weather.
Stay safe. – Breezy