John_Heyman's Blog

OK folks, I normally take the weekends off, but this storm will be an exceptional one and requires a little OT blogging. I'm going to give my best effort to break down the storm for all of my fellow Fox 5 bloggers.

The rain will arrive late Saturday night into early Sunday morning. By the time most of us wake up Sunday morning, it will be raining steadily and heavily. The heaviest rain with this storm will fall from Sunday morning into Sunday afternoon. As much as 2"-3" of rain could fall across the region by Sunday evening. Northeast winds will pummel the region as well with gusts as high as 50 MPH. The northeasterly wind will pile the Atlantic waters up along the coast causing significant coastal flooding at the times of high tide. Huge waves on top of the storm surge will batter the coast and lead to major beach erosion as well. Suffice to say, Sunday will be the worst day of this storm.

What the storm does Sunday evening will have a huge effect on our weather for Monday into Tuesday. At this point, it appears that the storm will move just to our north into Massachussettes and stall. If this scenario holds true, the worst of the storm will be over. If the storm is to our north, we will have a northwesterly wind which will be quite chilly but relatively dry. The northwesterly wind will continue to bring clouds and a few showers or snow showers, but no steady rain. The northwesterly wind will also blow the Atlantic waters out to sea ending the threat for coastal flooding and major beach erosion.

However, if the storm stalls just to our south and east, the northeasterly wind will continue to wreak havoc on the region. Plenty of Atlantic moisture will continue to stream in causing periods of light rain and drizzle to continue on a steady basis. A persistent northeasterly wind will also continue to pile the Atlantic waters up along the coast causing major coastal flooding and beach erosion. And these problems will be slow to remedy themselves if the storm slowly drifts out to sea to our south and east. The wind, rain, and coastal flooding could last into Tuesday or even Wednesday if this scenario holds true.

Where this storm stalls and our resulting wind direction will be everything with this storm. As long as the storm gets to our north before running out of steam, it will be a one day event with lingering wind and a few showers. If it runs out of steam before reaching us, we could see coastal flooding and beach erosion of historic proportions. So remember, a northwest wind is good. The northeast wind is the killer.