Weather Service issues dire warning as major storm hits Massachusetts

With a giant nor’easter slamming into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, forecasters are using warnings with dire language to inform coastal residents of Massachusetts that this storm will not be an ordinary event. 

In fact, record coastal flooding is anticipated in Boston and other parts of eastern Massachusetts, which is leading the National Weather Service to come out with statements that it rarely, if ever, issues.

The coastal flooding is the result of a long fetch of easterly winds, reaching hurricane force (75 miles per hour), pointed squarely at the north-south coast of eastern Massachusetts. The combination of astronomical high tides, astorm surge of 3 to 5 feet, storm surge, and waves of up to 30 feet just just offshore, is already inundating the coastline with water levels well above normal tide levels, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). At high tide on Friday morning, the water in Boston Harbor reached 14.36 feet, which was the third-highest water level on record. And the worst of this storm is yet to come. 

For the high tide on Friday night, the NWS is forecasting a record water level will be set in Boston of between 15.4 and 15.7 feet, beating the old record set just two months ago. The long-lasting flooding and battering waves  has prompted unusually drastic language in the NWS’ warnings (emphasis ours). 

Damage to some shoreline structures may occur. There will likely be widespread inundation of coastal roads and basements with life-threatening inundation depths above 3 or more feet possible in some locations. Some neighborhoods may be cut off for an extended time. This is a dangerous storm, and evacuation of some neighborhoods may be necessary. 

Another major impact from the storm will likely be beach erosion, prompting this warning from the NWS: “Very severe to extreme erosion is likely and may compromise protective dunes, seawalls and other structures. This storm may be capable of producing one or more new inlets.”

In other words, this storm could simply smash through existing land, to create new islands. 

The NWS’s Coastal Flood Threat and Inundation map shows where the worst flooding is expected along the Massachusetts coast, with water levels of nearly 15 feet expected in locations like Gloucester Harbor, Revere, Scituate, and Boston.

The coastal flooding could break records all along Massachusetts’ coast, including the Boston area, records that were just set in early January thanks to the “Bomb Cyclone” that whipped through the area. 

There’s a major difference between that storm and this one, even though both are intensifying rapidly enough to be called meteorological bombs.

Unlike with the “Bomb Cyclone,” which moved through quickly, a high pressure area over Greenland (also known as a “Greenland block”) will keep the current storm system pinned in place for days. This means the storm will last through several high tide cycles along the North Atlantic coast, making damage more likely.  

Images were already rolling in Friday morning from along the coast, showing high water levels with more high tides yet to come. 

The storm is undergoing bombogenesis, with the storm’s central air pressure plummeting by more than 24 millibars in 24 hours. And besides strong winds and flooding, the storm is lashing the East Coast — from Connecticut all the way down to Washington, D.C. — with heavy rain and, in some places, heavy snow. 

This is a developing story…