The storm is underway and has already been lashing the area with strong winds, coastal flooding and snow. Although the snow is the least of the impacts early today it will get its opportunity to impact eastern Massachusetts with several inches of snow late today, tonight and into Friday morning. As we mentioned yesterday this is a long duration event and the impacts will be felt locally through Friday.
Lets break the storm down by impacts:
Coastal Flooding: The Coastal Flood Warning continues in effect through the Friday morning high tide cycle. Communities along the North Shore, such as Salisbury, Plum Island, Revere and Winthrop, to name a few, were under siege with battering waves, some flooding and significant beach erosion from this mornings high tide. This evenings high tide, about 7 pm and Friday mornings high tide, near 8 am, will both bring more of the same and the flooding could get worse with each high tide cycle. Storm surge of 2 to 3 feet are expected as angry waves offshore build to near 30 feet. Local authorities are keeping a close watch on developments. Scituate and Plum Island are particularly vulnerable to significant coastal damage.
Winds: Gusty northeast winds have been with us since yesterday afternoon and they will continue into Friday night. Gusts along the coast have been exceeding 40 mph and are expected to continue to gust well over 40 mph to perhaps as high as 55 mph along the coastal plain.
Snow: Currently the National Weather Service has a Winter Storm Warning in effect for inland sections and a Winter Weather Advisory generally inside of Route 95 and including all of Essex County. The advisory could be upgraded to a warning in Essex County later today. Essentially the weather service is predicting up to 8 inches inland with lesser amounts inside of Route 95 to the coast.
The mix of rain and snow showers of yesterday became all snow overnight. Snow intensity began to pick up during this mornings commute and has continued at a steady clip through the morning. It will continue to snow throughout today, tonight and into Friday morning. A few raindrops could mix in right along the coast. Best chances for accumulating snow today will be along and west of the Route 95 corridor, then all the way to the coast tonight and early Friday. That’s not to say communities near and along the coast will not see any accumulation today, it will just be more difficult with marginal temperatures that will be a few degrees above the freezing mark. The precipitation begins to wind down Friday afternoon, with the coast being the last to see it come to an end.
When all is said and done the immediate coast, within only a few miles of the coastline, has accumulations of 2 to 4 inches, quickly increasing to 3 to 6 inches a few miles away from the coast to Route 95 and west of there over 6 inches to perhaps some 10 inch totals into the metro west and northwest suburbs along Route 495. This will be a heavy pasty snow and shoveling or removing it by other means is more difficult from the powdery type snow we had in prior storms.
Power Outages: Last but certainly not least is the issue of power outages. With the strong winds, snow that will stick to trees and wires and accumulate significantly in some locations you have to be ready for the possibility of scattered power outages.
Keep informed with the latest information on the evolving storm through local media or here through our Twitter feed. Stay safe. https://twitter.com/NorthShore_Wx
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