Weird Storm In New England Is Winterlike

A tree down in today's storm, Lawrence, Mass.
Photo via Twitter @ChrisLemire12 d 

Nor'easters are pretty common in New England during the winter, almost everyone knows that.

They're rare in the summer but a nor'easter-like storm is hitting New England today.

It's not a classic nor'easter, but it has a lot of the ingredients of such a storm. And that's almost unheard of in late June.

The storm had the kind of upper air support you get with winter storms, when there's a large contrast between Arctic air to the north and warmer air to the south.

In the summer, the contrast between Arctic and tropics isn't so strong, and that's one oversimplified reason you don't get large scale low pressure systems like the one over New England now.

But the jet stream is unusually amplified. That means it bulges way north over western North America and plunges far south toward the east.

Once again, that's odd. The bulges and dips in the jet stream aren't usually all that big in the summer. This weekend it is.

Winds aren't all that strong in New England with this storm, compared to some winter nor'easters. There have been gusts over 40 mph in many areas, especially along the coast and on the western slopes of some mountain ranges, like the Green Mountains in Vermont.

Nor'easters, though, usually hit when trees are leafless. Each leaf on a tree acts as a littl sail, so when the wind blows, the leaves act in concert to pull the tree into the direction of the wind. That makes it more likely the tree will fall over under the strain of the wind, compared to times when there are no leaves.

Many parts of the Northeast, including much of Vermont, have had a near record wet June. The ground is saturated. When the ground is that wet, it is of course less solid, so tree roots aren't on such firm ground.

The soft ground makes it easier for winds to uproot trees, so there you go. Several thousand homes and businesses were without power in Vermont this morning due to these trees falling on wires.

Other power failures were pretty widespread in southern New England, especially near the coast.

All that rain with the storm raised the spector of flooding in Vermont and eastern New York, but so far there hasn't been many problems in that regard and I don't expect anything huge.

An inch or two of rain is falling in these areas. Normally that amount of rain would be no big deal at all, but the ground is so wet from previous rains that this could be enough to get some streams and rivers close to the overflowing point.

Worse, if heavy rains develop with a cold front coming along Tuesday night, today's rain could increase the chances of flooding then.

While no nor'easter like storms are due in New England any time soon after today, the overall weather pattern favors fairly frequent wet spells here into July.