Stalled Nor'easter in New England Means We're In For A Week Of Rain And Chill.

Cloudy, damp, chilly November like
skies over Burlington, Vermont on Monday.
Expect a weeklong rainstorm in Vermont
and the rest of New England this week due
to a stalled nor'easter.  

The slide into winter continues apace, as snow flurries fell across the mountains of northern New England Sunday, and the first frosts of the season hit parts of southern New England Monday.

Another big feature of winter are nor'easters, those big blustery storms along the East Coast, especially in New England. They bring high winds, heavy rain and heavy snow.

One slow moving one will hit the Northeast this week.

It's early in the season, so there will be little if any snow.

Freezing levels will be up around 6,000 feet, so only maybe the tippy top of Mount Washington will get snow.  The rest of us are in for a chilly rainstorm.

But for the rest of New England, especially the coastline and in Maine, we're in for a week of heavy rain, coastal erosion, wind and chilly temperatures.

In the upper atmosphere, this storm will get cut off from the main flow of the the jet stream, which is basically moving west to east. This means the nor'easter, as it develops today, will sit and spin near the New England coast for the rest of the week before grudgingly moving away toward the weekend.

This means if you like November weather, you'll LOVE this week.

But the Northeast, especially eastern and central New England, could be in for a lot of rain. Pretty much all of New England and northeastern New York is going to get more than an inch of rain.

Much of Vermont and the eastern two thirds of southern New England will probably get two inches of rain. But the real quote, unquote winners will be New Hampshire and especially central and coastal Maine, where more than five inches of rain could come down between now and Friday.

For most of New England, this rain is welcome as it has been on the dry side until recently. It'll be the kind of steady, slow rain that really soaks into the ground, precisely what we need.

Maine and a good chunk of New Hampshire are a problem, though. So much rain will come down that there is a risk of flooding. It doesn't help that New Hampshire and Maine have been a bit wetter than the rest of New England lately.

The coast is going to be a bit of a problem, too, but not an extreme one. We're in a phase in which tides aren't normally their highest of the season. Also, this nor'easter will be a strong storm, but not extraordinarily so.

All this means that coastal flooding will be minor. However, this storm will linger for days, as opposed to the quick one or at most two day shots typical of most nor'easters. So, coastal erosion caused by days of pounding by stormy waves will be a real issue.

For the rest of us in New England, even those of us far removed from the coast in northwestern Vermont, expect a long stretch of rain, damp, gray, breezy, cold weather. I guess this is all payback for the gloriously sunny, bright and dry autumn we've had up until the end of last week.