Get ready for a true New England autumn storm. This time around we have it all: rain, thunder, wind, warmth, cold and snow. Yeah, you read that right. Snow.
I even dusted off the snowfall map from last spring and used it on air. Let's take it from the top. Tropical moisture will be drawn into New England on an increasing southeast wind today.
This will is in response to a lot of jet stream energy that will spin up a low pressure system off Long Island. As more energy is poured into the storm Saturday, the winds will start to increase. As the storm deepens, the cold will materialize and switch us to snow in Northern New England on Sunday. And as the cold snuffs out what's left of the warm, the wind is going to howl.
Downpours run into Southern New England (SNE) this afternoon and evening, converging on Northern New England (NNE) by tonight for a widespread drenching. Since the downpours aren't as consolidated for SNE, I'm not thinking this is a huge drought-buster. But in NNE, we have a chance to deal a significant blow to the intensifying drought.
Winds will be a none-issue at first - even into Saturday morning. But as the storm deepens, the winds pick up their pace. Gusts hit Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and the Outer Cape first, topping out at 40-45 mph. Then the focus shifts to Saturday night and Sunday for the remainder of New England. Here too, the gusts could top 40-45 throughout the period. This may result in isolated power outages just about anywhere.
Trees are weakened from prolonged drought and with some still partially leafed, it won't take much to fell them. As the cold is drawn in Saturday, the temps will crumble from the 60s to 50s - and even 40s in NNE. Sunday everyone is chilly with 40s north and 50s south.
It will feel like 30s though with the surging wind. Cold will be lowering the freezing level in the mountains, so snow is likely throughout NNE. Accumulation should be limited to the highest terrain, so beware over the mountain passes. Chill only deepens into next week. 60s, 70s and 80s (giggle) will seem like a lifetime away, until our next pattern change. Welcome to autumn.
