That Nor'easter Is Stronger, Weirder Than I Thought It Would Be

Satellite view of the nor'easter all wound up
in New England.  

The nor'easter that's been hitting New England since yesterday has been full of surprises. Those surprises include the power of the storm.  

It's definitely not exactly the most extreme such storm to hit New England, but still, it's causing more problems than I thought it would.

Winds along the coast were stronger than I expected, with gusts reaching 60 mph in Hull and Scituate, Mass.

It was kind of fascinating for this weather geek to watch, on radar, last night, bands of intense thunderstorms coming ashore on Long Island and in New England.

The rain has been the worst of it. Parts of eastern Massachusetts have gotten up to four or even five inches of rain. 

That's somewhat more than what was predicted. The downpours also came in such a short period of time that the downpours caused lots of street flooding in the Boston metro area during this morning's commute.

Quite a few cars got stuck in the high water, too.  

As of mid-morning Thursday, the band of heaviest rain had moved into southern New Hampshire, central and western Massachusetts and southern Vermont.

Flood warnings are up for all of those areas.

In Vermont, they're watching the Deerfield River, which I'm sure freaks a lot of people out. That's because of all rivers, the Deerfield caused arguably the most extreme and scary floods and damage during Hurricane Irene in 2011. Nobody wants a repeat, especially in the town of Wilmington, Vermont, which was totally trashed by Irene.

This time, the flooding will be much less extensive than Irene, so I think people can relax. Just stay away from low lying roads near the river and you should be fine. And watch out around brooks and small creeks in southern Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. They can get high fast.

This boat got washed ashore in Massachusetts
by the nor'easter hitting the region.  

I think the street flooding has been made worse in many cases because of the time of year the storm hit.

Leaves are just falling from the trees. Those leaves probably clogged storm drains, so the water had no place to go, except onto streets and into cars along those streets.

It seems like the nor'easter consolidated itself more than I thought it would, concentrating its power, at least last night and this morning, in southern New England.

Here in northwestern Vermont, we were expecting a steady, cold light rain yesterday afternoon and it didn't materialize. (Allowing me to get some outdoor work done, Yay!)

That nicer than expected weather in northern Vermont might have partly a product of that nor'easter focusing more to the south.

I can tell you right now it's not nearly as pleasant in northern Vermont as it was yesterday, and it's going to stay icky. Here in St. Albans, Vermont as of 10:30 a.m., we had a thick drizzle, a stiff north wind probably at 15 mph and the temperature is only in the low 40s.

That won't change at all this afternoon, except the rain will probably get steadier and heavier, and the wind will increase, probably gusting to 30 mph or so.

Flood watches continue in much of eastern New Hampshire and the southern half of Maine as the nor'easter's deep moisture continues to move north.  There will be little or no flooding in northern and central Vermont because the rain won't be too, too hard. Plus, Vermont had its seventh driest September on record, so there's room for the rain water to soak in.

Coastal flood advisories are up for New Hampshire and Maine as battering waves are causing some splash over, erosion and flooded roads.

All in all, it's a pretty nasty storm. Although it has its bright side: Most of New England was dry, and this is putting a serious dent in the dryness. Too bad the rain came too hard, too fast in some areas, leading to the local flooding issues.

The weather will get a little better in New England Friday as the storm slowly chugs eastward out to sea. But conditions will remain unsettled through the weekend, as other small disturbances arrive from the north and west, especially on Saturday night and Sunday.