1 p.m. Nor'easter Update: Major Massachusetts Coastal Flood Disaster Now Unfolding

Storm chaser Simon Brewer captured this chaotic cene of brutal
crashing waves, storm surge flooding and blizzard conditions
today in Scituate, Massachuaetts. (Click photo to make
it bigger and easier to see.)

It's even worse than expected in coastal Massachusetts. It looks to me like a severe disaster is unfolding.  

Storm surges and tides with the big nor'easter are even worse than dire earlier forecasts. There is some pretty major flooding in many coastal towns, including Boston, Scitutate, Duxbury, Quincy, Marshfield, Nantucket and Plymouth.

The tide in Boston looks like it will be even higher than that during the epic Blizzard of 1978. Social media is showing cars inundated on Winthrop, Massachusetts streets, waves slamming into homes in Scituate. It looks like there was at least two feet of water on Easy Street in Nantucket.

NECN reports numerous cars stuck in the flooding in Quincy, and rescue operations are under way. Also in Quincy, water is entering homes.

The National Weather Service in Taunton, Massachusetts says this is some of the worst coastal flooding in Boston area history. Water in Chatham, on Cape Cod, cut through a barrier island and water is now up to condominium doors, at last report.

As you can gather by all these tidbits, this is a breaking story and I'll have more info as reports come in later this afternoon.

From Twitter. @charlesorloff captured this storm surge
flooding in Barnstable, Massachusetts today.

Elsewhere, bands of heavy snow set up in various places so far today, including the Jersey Shore, New York City and eastern Massachusetts, including Boston. White out and blizzard conditions were reported there, as you might expect.

Here in Vermont, it's more mellow, which is of course a good thing. Light to at times moderate snow is falling across the state.

The wind is just beginning to pick up, and will get much worse as we go through the afternoon and evening. Blowing and drifting and bad visibility will become a major issue.

Parts of eastern Vermont are now under a wind advisory, with gusts to 50 mph expected tonight. Elsewhere in Vermont, gusts will top 40 mph in a lot of places.

The new snow will be difficult to measure. It's also difficult to forecast. On the one hand, very dry Arctic air is coming in from the northwest, which would tend evaporate incoming snow. On the other hand, bands of heavier snow are pivoting westward from the storm toward Vermont. Which wil win?

The Vermont forecast still seems pretty accurate in my opinion with three or four inches west and up to ten inches east and south.