Flood Watch Issued For Friday
BOSTON (CBS) – It looks like we may narrowly avoid some major flooding over the next 24 to 48 hours.
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For the second time this week a giant storm is encompassing much of the eastern half of the U.S. and dumping copious amounts of rainfall.
Watch Barry Burbank's forecast
Once again, a ridge of high pressure to our east, over the Atlantic, is holding strong and directing the majority of the rainfall into parts of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic States.
The high pressure area is working as a block for us here in eastern New England, and by the time the heavy rain band is able to break that block, it will have spent most of its energy well to our west.
THE FORECAST
We are in for scattered rain showers for the rest of today and tonight as the heavy rain creeps ever so slowly from west to east.
By Friday morning it will be raining heavily in New York City, still just a few showers here.
The heavy rain arrives in our area around midday on Friday and is only here for about 3-to-6 hours.
Therefore, rainfall amounts in central and eastern Massachusetts will range from about half-an-inch to a little over one inch.
Farther west in the Berkshires and in New York state rainfall amounts could easily exceed 2 or 3 inches and cause significant flooding.
A Flood Watch has been issued for the northern and western suburbs of Boston for minor river flooding on Friday.
Thankfully, any river flooding that does happen after Friday's rain should be minor, nothing worse than what we experienced earlier this week.
WEEKEND FORECAST
And more good news - we are in for a fairly quiet stretch for the next several days, starting this weekend.
Friday's storm will strengthen up in the Canadian Maritimes over the weekend and steer any storms that may try to head this way well to our south.
We could see just a few scattered drops in southern New England and a few drops or flurries in the mountains over the next few days.
And expect a sunny, dry start to next week as well, with no big storms in sight for now. That's plenty of time for rivers to relax a bit.
