The Town of Newington is monitoring a significant storm that is predicted to impact the area Tuesday evening through Wednesday afternoon with the strongest wind and rain occurring between midnight and 7am.
A Flood Watch and High Wind Watch has been issued for the area
Recommendations: The weather is expected to arrive in the early afternoon, approximately 4pm, with the heaviest rain and strongest wind expected between Midnight and 7am. It is recommended that, unless there is a need to be on the road, to stay indoors. The Town is monitoring the weather and will be monitoring road conditions for both obstructions and flooding issues. We have also been in contact with representatives from Eversource and will be working with them throughout the storm to mitigate any power outages.
The following summary is from a weather monitoring site, Eweather, with a breakdown on what to expect….
"This system will be a blizzard across the central US, but the main low pressure system tracks through the Great Lakes. That puts us on the mild side. A strong frontal system comes through SNE that extends all the way down the east coast into the tropics. That serves as a conveyor belt for anomalously moist air to be transported into SNE. It’s a highly unusual system for this time of year and is similar to the strong storm we had the week before Christmas that caused heavy rain, flooding and hundreds of thousands of power outages across the NE US.
There’s enough cold air at the onset for snow in the hills. But eventually this turns to rain everywhere as temps shoot up into the 50s Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning.
Here’s the rundown:
Timing: Rain pushes in from the west mid to late Tuesday afternoon. Across the far NW and NE CT hills, and across the central/western MA hills it’s cold enough for snow at the onset that will changeover to rain. By 7-8am Wed this is moving out of E MA. So most of it happens while you sleep. Another tough night for sleeping and I expect residual impacts to the am commute on Wed even though the storm will be winding down then. The strongest wind and heaviest rain is between midnight and 7am.
Precipitation: Overall 1.5-3” liquid equivalent with locally higher amounts . Outside the hills that all falls as rain. In the hills, after a quick coating to maybe an inch or two in the highest elevations, it changes to heavy rain.
Flooding: The ground is saturated. Temps in the 50s will rapidly melt the snow. In addition the heavy rain is expected to fall quickly as this system moves through in roughly 12 hours. The Weather Prediction Center has a chunk of the area now in the moderate risk level for excessive rainfall (see graphic above) - that doesn’t happen very often. That means there’s a 40-69% chance rainfall exceeds flash flood guidance. Expect quick rises of small streams and rivers, poor drainage flooding, watch those basements too. Make a path for water to flow around the snow and clear those storm drains and downspouts.
Wind: A strong low level jet once again - you’ll hear it roaring overhead Tuesday night. Expect gusty SSE to southerly winds that will be strongest near coastal areas - especially east and SE. For coastal E and SE coastal areas expect wind gusts 50-70mph and there could be a few gusts over 70mph in those typical wind prone ocean front locations on Cape Cod and the Islands, maybe over toward Point Judith too. In those spots also expect sustained winds 30-40mph. Inland SE areas which includes all of RI and I would include coastal SE CT as well…gusts 40-60mph. Eastern CT into Central MA 40-55mph. W CT and W MA 30-50mph (except higher locations exposed southerly will gust much higher).
Power Outages: Expect scattered power outages. As you get closer to the SE shore outages may be a bit more numerous.
Bottom line: Another impactful system coming for SNE. I expect some schools may be impacted on Wed and there is likely to be some road closures too."