Nor'easter Continues To Bring Strong Winds & Rain
Find Eric Fisher on Twitter and Facebook
**This update posted at 11:25pm**
Peabody wind gusts @wx1box RT @BriCrocker @ericfisher @RrLePage Look closely. 54 mph to be exact. pic.twitter.com/Qh8EaowFvv
— Eric Fisher (@ericfisher) October 23, 2014
A winter preview? This autumn nor'easter has brought a wallop to the area with heavy rainfall and some strong wind gusts. While 50mph might not do too much in the winter, it certainly can produce some damage in October. Leaves on the trees can act like sails and 'catch' the wind, helping to bring them down. We've seen several pockets of sct'd tree damage and, in turn, power lines coming down. *Always* treat downed lines as LIVE and call the electric company instead of going out to examine the scene. That can be a life-threatening mistake.
Latest National Grid Power Outages: Click Here
Latest NSTAR Power Outages: Click Here
The wind has certainly been the main headline with numerous gusts 40-50mph, a few above 50mph, and even one to 60mph in Hull! The center of this storm is slowly drifting north, but is moving slow enough to keep wind a headline through Wednesday night and into Thursday morning as well. That means some more trees and limbs are likely going to come down, leading to more power outages in spots. Also makes it trickier for crews to get out there and fix the problems. The direction of these strong winds will change slightly heading into Thursday, to a more northerly direction (as opposed to NE). Still, this should pile up water along the coastline and move some of it down toward Cape Cod Bay. We will likely see areas of minor flooding (the usual roads covering up with water, etc) and splashover because of this, with the tide not moving out nearly as much as normal. The only thing working in our favor to prevent a larger issue - astronomical tides are not high right now. That's good news.
The persistent wind over a long distance of ocean is called 'fetch' and will also help lead to some erosion concerns. In particular, the North Shore may see an impact from this. The usual problem areas such as Plum Island could potentially lose quite a bit of sand before Thursday comes to an end. And as you can imagine with all this wind - there's some very high surf with some wave heights possibly topping 10-12'.
There's also just going to be a whole lot of debris out there as daylight shines on storm damage Thursday morning. This could make travel difficult in spots before cleanup crews can get to downed limbs, etc. Plus, we're losing a ton of our leaves with this storm. Strong and persistent wind and heavy rain are really doing a number - which is a shame since this is peak week for foliage in the area! Would expect a lot of trees stripped of their beautiful color before this one wraps up, leaving us with some serious raking to do.
Latest Radar: Click Here
As for the rain - there will be elements/bands of heavy rain complete with lightning and thunder through the overnight and into the day on Thursday. Patches of heavy rainfall will be possible through the commute, and may linger into the afternoon as well before the heaviest rain transitions up into northern New England. The morning drive could be VERY slow with some of this heavy rain holding on, plus the wind. Rain totals still look like a widespread 1-3", but a lot of the rain will add up in these heavier bursts...with drizzle and lighter showers between. Local totals up to 4" aren't out of the question. The only issue when it comes to freshwater flooding will be during these downpours when urban and poor drainage areas fill up with water and cause some flooded out roads. Be very cautious traveling through Thursday afternoon. You know the saying - Turn Around Don't Drown.
Within these downpours will also come strong wind gusts. These storms can help 'bring down' stronger winds that are at least 50 knots just a thousand feet or so off the ground. So when it rains heavily, the wind will also pick up and gust 45-60mph.
Trees down in Stoughton (left) and Plymouth (right)
As we head into Thursday evening the heavier rain will be moving into northern New England and it will taper off to showers around here. We could still see a lingering shower and blustery winds on Friday, but the main event will be over and we should be able to manage some sunshine by the end of the day too. So in terms of significant impact, it's now through approximately the middle of Thursday afternoon. Then we can start eying all those fallen trees, limbs and leaves and start picking up before more wind ramps up Saturday afternoon into Sunday.