Nor'easter Brings Intense Winds, Widespread Power Outages And Tree Damage
BOSTON (CBS) -- Heavy rain and wind continue this Wednesday as the Nor'easter impacting Massachusetts underwent bombogenesis dropping in pressure by 24 mb in a 24 hour period.
Due to this quick drop, winds intensified with peak gusts topping over 80 mph in many spots before sunrise. The highest wind gust was in Edgartown, where it hit 94 miles per hour.
The gusts led to widespread tree damage and massive power outages.
Fortunately, the high tides are astronomically low. So, coastal flooding concerns are minimal Wednesday, despite the persistent onshore wind pushing rough surf and waves into our coast. Still, pockets of minor flooding and beach erosion are possible.
These winds also brought down leaves that exacerbated flooding concerns as they cluttered storm drains. As rain continued early Wednesday, the risk of street flooding and ponding continued, but it was relatively lower on the list of impacts. Up to an additional one inch of rain is possible on Wednesday. Luckily, no major flooding was been reported as of Wednesday morning. Still, take precautions if you head outside.
Here's what we got.
Wednesday morning:
• Finally, we started to get some improvement
• We were left with light to moderate pockets of rainfall, flooding concerns much lower to non-existent
• Winds lowered from their peak overnight but they still were very strong and damaging. Tree damage and power outages were still possible but peak wind gusts were closer to 50 mph by midday, rather the 80+ we saw overnight. Wind directions changed from northeast to more northerly.
• Travel conditions slowly improved throughout the morning.
Wednesday afternoon:
• The cleanup began. Light rain and drizzle continues but no significant rainfall
• Winds continue to lower each hour. By 5 p.m. the peak gusts at the coast were closer to 40 mph (lower inland) and largely below damaging levels.
