Already Causing Damage, Epic Northeast U.S. Storm To Get Much Worse Today

Tree on a house in Milton, Massachusetts this morning, in
this image from WBZ via Twitter. Expect lots more wind
damage in the Northeast today.

Early this morning, the long-awaited severe storm in the Northeast was consolidating off the New Jersey coast and intensifying rapidly - bombing out, as they say.

Weather conditions are getting worse, as expected, and today will be a wild ride of destructive winds, even worse coastal storm surges and battering waves, flooding rains and punishing, heavy wet snow.

This will be a day to remember in much of the Northeast.

Before the storm had really had a chance to intensify to full strength early this morning. In the eastern United States, roughly 400,000 homes and businesses were already without power as of 6 a.m. That number will surely increase big time.

A tree had fallen onto a house in Maryland, trapping a 100-year-old man, who was later rescued and taken to the hospital with injuries.

Around Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia, the National Weather Service is not messing around with warnings. The high wind warnings and special weather statements down there say to expect a prolonged period of wind gusts to 60 or 70 mph, with winds now dying down to below 30 mph until Sunday.

Winds have already gusted to 67 mph at Dulles airport.

So it will take forever to get power restored. A special weather statement from the NWS has this to say to people in Washington DC, Maryland and surrounding areas: "Pedestrians will face very hazardous conditions, and need to be aware of wind-borne projectiles. People should avoid being outside in forested areas and around trees and branches. If possible, remain in the lower levels of your home during the windstorm, and avoid windows."

That's not your routine high wind alert, is it?  Many businesses are closed as a precaution, as are all federal offices in the Washington DC area.

As of 6 a.m., there were already many reports of wind damage in the Mid-Atlantic states, and the wind intensity will only rise today as the storm intensifies.

Early this morning in southern New England, wind gusts were "only" mostly in the 35 to 50 mph category, but as the storm ramps up, winds are likely to gust as high as 80 mph along the coast and 50 mph as far west as the Berkshires.

In mid and higher elevations of Massachusetts, especially from Worcester County west, the heavy snow and high winds guarantee lots of fallen trees and power lines.

All eyes, of course, are on the coast, where the worst destruction will occur. The forecast hasn't changed, and coastal areas from North Carolina to New England are in for a terrible battering today and tomorrow.

In Massachusetts, they're still bracing for possible record high storm surges and immense waves that will destroy houses and flood large areas. Since this will happen through three or four high tide cycles today through Saturday, the damage could end up being immense.

If New England gets lucky, the most intense part of the storm could hit at low tide, which would help, but don't count on it.

The worst of the heavy, wet snow is hitting a good portion of central and western New York, on down into the Catskills. It's also seriously affecting many areas of inland Connecticut, Massachusetts and southern Vermont. A few places in New York State might end up with two feet of new snow.

Thundersnow was reported in western New York last night. Some areas of that region and the Catskills already had 10 inches of new snow by dawn.

It's possible enough cooling will bring snow even to the coast in New York and New Jersey today. We'll see.

This is one scary storm

VERMONT EFFECTS

The forecast for today hasn't changed much for Vermont, with northern sections of the state escaping with just typically lousy March weather. Some places way up near the Canadian border might not get much snow or cold rain at all.

As of 8 a.m., snow had spread as far north as Burlington, Vermont, but Milton, just a few miles to the north, had no snow.

Southern Vermont, though, is in for a pasting with heavy, wet snow, wind and power failures. Schools in that part of the state are closed, as you'd expect. According to the Vermont Outage Map, there were more than 1,600 homes and businesses without power already in southeastern Vermont.

A winter storm warning is still in effect for far southern Vermont today.