Coastal communities in southern New England were under high wind warnings and flood watches Thursday as a multi-day, autumn nor'easter bore down on the region.
For the second day in a row, strong wind blew in from the ocean with periods of heavy rain and high seas from the hybrid-nor’easter, which was expected to last rthrough Friday night and possible into part of the weekend.
We started Thursday on the cold side. It was wet in southern New England and mostly dry north. In far northern New England, was clear and frosty.
Those in southern New England, however, needed some rain gear, too.
Low pressure strengthened overnight and slowed down, and actually backed up a little toward us, south of Nantucket. The heaviest wind and rain is across the coastal area in southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.
We have a number of advisories, watches, and warnings, including a coastal flood advisory, a high wind warning for Cape Cod and the Islands, a flood watch and a high surf advisory all the way up along the Maine coast.
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Bands of heavy rain with possible thunder are moving from east to west in southern New England. There is some drier air in northern New England and maybe even some lighter rain. There may be a pause in the rain for southern New England late Thursday and in the evening.
Temperatures top out only in the 40s in higher elevations, to 50s and near 60 degrees along the south coast.
This evening, we may have a few hours where it’s not raining too hard. Perhaps the Patriots game may dry out. Either way, it’s going to be cold and likely damp, with the temperature in the low 50s. Eind from the northeast may gust at about 20 or 25 mph.
On the coast, we may have wind gusts in excess of 50 mph, possibly stronger on Nantucket. High tides are late Thursday morning and again later in the evening. Coastal erosion is a certainty and coastal flooding is a possibility.
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Conditions gradually ease Friday, with rain gradually becoming lighter. The wind will gradually decrease in intensity, but the storm is not over and we may have further issues, especially at the shoreline. At the same time, well to our west, we’re monitoring a very heavy early winter storm in the northern plains.
That storm is moving to the Midwest and gradually stalling and weakening. We’re counting on some helpful impact from that system, pushing drier air in our direction and pushing our coastal storm out and away Saturday.
But before that happens, we may have one more element of rain and wind come up the coast from Massachusetts to Maine Saturday morning, before drying from west to east Saturday afternoon.
Sunday and the holiday Monday are looking pretty good at this point, with partly to mostly sunny skies and temperatures back into the 60s, as seen here in our First Alert 10-Day Forecast.
