Marine Community: Significant Storm to Impact the Weekend

Well we all know by now that there's a storm on the way for the weekend.  Its impact on southern New England will depend on where you are and the exact track of the storm. There's been little change to my thinking…the energy and moisture come together a little too late and a little too far east to significantly impact us with heavy rain or snow.  There may be some snowflakes that mix in across the far interior, but no accumulation is expected.  For more details, see Eric's blog from yesterday. The wind on the backside of the storm may have the biggest effect; gusts up to 45 mph are likely, with some exceeding 50 mph on the Cape on Sunday. This would be strong enough to cause some pockets of damage and isolated outages. We'll monitor this risk closely over the next couple of days.

One thing is for certain though: our marine community will be impacted significantly. Even if the storm tracks a bit farther east, the wind will be strongest over the ocean and the seas will build as a result.

A period of storm force wind gusts are likely late Saturday into Sunday.  Seas will build to 10' by Saturday afternoon, 15-20' by Sunday morning.  The largest waves will be found well offshore and south of Nova Scotia where heights could exceed 30'.

For now, mariners shouldn't plan any long duration trips and should be prepared to return to port by early Saturday.

-Danielle