Powerful storm to hit New England with heavy rain, mountain snow and tropical-storm-force winds Friday
1. The pressure analysis from 8 a.m. shows a developing storm moving eastward from Indiana.
2. It will spread rain over the East Coast by early tonight. As the storm cranks up, wind-driven downpours will cause street and highway flooding. Between 1 and 3 inches of rain looks likely from NYC to Boston. Onshore gales will send massive waves into the beaches, and there will be overwash, especially at the times of high tide. If you live in an area where the January "bomb" storm caused damage, be aware that this storm could do the same (or even worse in spots.). Mariners have been alerted to the fact this storm will pose a serious threat to vessels of all sizes. Please do not underestimate the danger from this storm. (If you live in a solid structure away from the coast, tomorrow will only be a very windy and rainy day). As colder air feeds southward on the west side of the storm, rain will change to windblown snow. While there can be snow accumulation all the way to the Jersey coast, the heaviest amounts of a foot or more are most likely in the Poconos and Catskills. This map shows where the storm should be at 1 p.m. tomorrow. Note to isobars on this map are at 4 mb intervals, much greater than the interval used on pressure maps like the one above.
3. Today's video:
Elliot Abrams' Video Blog
4. This is March:
This is the chameleon month of March. Always searching for a sense of identity, its days stagger through punches of waning winter, dance with the sunlit caresses of coming spring and hide behind thick clouds through the windswept battles between the two.
The midday sky looks brighter now, but the sun sneaks out of view before the dinner dishes can be cleared. Winter's cloak of white melts down to oozing mud and rushing streams.
Dark December, Jailer January and Fortress February no longer hold the keys around here. We peer out, and the door to winter's dungeon creaks open.
And yet, rather than seizing this moment of weakness, rather than racing headlong into warmer times, spring prefers the test-market approach: try a hint of south wind here, a puffy cumulus there; teasing breezings between the freezings. Even the south wind has ragged, chilly edges on many a March day; subtle hints of warmth vanish all too quickly in the gathering dim of dusk.
..But if the south wind quickens, there's usually some double agent storm waiting in the wings, a two faced wanderer of the westerlies dealing dreadful thunderstorms on its south side and freezing gales with drifting snows to its north. As storms approach, the day carries a hint of mildness, but the fading sun gives ground to a milky veil that would all too readily drop snow but for the want of a few degrees. Fake spring.
... so sweet the lure of prospective spring: its meadows splashed with gold, its captivating sunshine, its renewal of earthly life. The set changes each March, and the players follow different scripts. But it's really the same show. No matter how many times we see it in life, we're always ready for it again. For as much as early April can mean memories of dark, chilly winter, it surely means brighter and better times are just ahead.
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