Heavy rain and powerful winds may lead to significant power outages on the evening of Dec. 11.
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00:00We do have a severe thunderstorm threat in the Hampton Roads area, but John, this moisture ribbon can be traced thousands of miles, all the way down to an area where we often talk about hurricanes.
00:13Sure can, that's right, and we often talk about atmospheric rivers on the west coast, and they tend to be associated with heavy rain and significant flooding concerns, while they happen on the east coast as well.
00:24And this is an example of one, these channels of fast-moving air that deliver copious amounts of atmospheric moisture, and you can see those yellows and oranges across New England, that's high levels of atmospheric moisture.
00:37And watch when we trace that all the way back, it goes back all the way to the Caribbean Sea, as Jeff mentioned, some 2,000 miles, a direct feed of tropical moisture.
00:47That's why we're dealing with such heavy rain and our flooding concerns as well.
00:51And this is also a part of why we've been dealing with temperatures in the low 60s in some areas, but it's not a walk in the park in the low 60s today, with this quasi-tropical air sliding up.
01:03So John, we have a lot of moving parts here, and the moisture is a big driver, but where are we expecting to see the worst of this rain and even the snow tonight?
01:13Well, it's going to be intensifying here over the next couple of hours in the big cities here, from Philadelphia toward New York City, and also eventually up into Boston, as we're going to be dealing with a heavy line of rain.
01:25Look at the rain, some of this rain is going to come down at one to two inches per hour.
01:29That's going to blast across New England here as we make our way through the evening hours and result in flooding concerns, especially near creeks and streams, and also in some of those low-lying areas.
01:41And also gusty winds and the power outages are going to start to mount as well, Jeff.
01:45Absolutely, and we're going to be tracking this. It's a fast mover, so tomorrow things are going to be very different, but in the meantime, a nasty night here.
01:53Atmospheric rivers, you mentioned, a lot of the time we associate this with the western U.S., but this is absolutely one for southeast New England.
01:59And John, we've also been tracking some snowmelt and some other problems up to the north that will be complicating the aquifers there.
02:08That's another factor here. We don't want people to let their guard down across Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
02:13That's where there has been several inches of snow on the ground in some areas.
02:17That's going to melt, too, because this high dewpoint air, it's high levels of moisture, as we talked about.
02:23It's going to feel almost, do I say, humid in some spots for this time of the year, and you'll notice that that's going to really result in that snowmelt.
02:30And that can add another one, one-and-a-half inches of liquid to run off, and that's going to amplify those flooding concerns again near creeks and streams,
02:39and that's why we're concerned about the risk for some locally significant flooding in those areas.
02:44Absolutely, and this is a little bit counterintuitive, but we heard from one ski resort in New England.
02:49They were actually hoping for rain because the ponds they use to help to fire up the snow guns, and they rely on them for the man-made snow on cold nights.
02:59Those ponds were getting so low that they were actually hoping for rain instead of snow in the short term.
03:03So some unusual things after a dry, dry fall, but John, this wind is a big deal here as well.
03:09Oh, this is going to be another major factor.
03:11It's going to be a wind-swept heavy rain with wind gusts of 50 to 70 miles an hour from down east Maine through southern New England,
03:18right through Long Island, New York City area, and down to coastal New Jersey and also down eastern Virginia as well.
03:24This is going to result in mounting power outages with some tree branches coming down, power lines becoming an issue,
03:30and look at wind gusts 30 to 50 miles an hour all the way back to Chicago, so lots of real estate with gusty winds.
03:37This is going to add to the travel challenges on the roads, and also the delays will continue to increase as well as cancellations at the big airports on the east coast.
03:46And, John, so far we've seen the bulk of the outages down in the southeastern states.
03:50So when do you expect the absolute worst of this to occur in southeast New England?
03:54Yeah, I think the peak of it is probably 7, 8, 9 o'clock tonight across much of southeast New England,
03:59and that's where the big concerns will be for larger volumes of power outages.
04:04So if you live across southern New England, like my family in eastern Connecticut,
04:09I let them know a couple of days ago, based on the AccuWeather forecast, be prepared for some power outages across these areas and download the AccuWeather app.
04:17We've got all the details about the impacts that we're expecting in your community in the app.
04:22All right, good advice there.
04:23AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter, thanks again, John, for your insight.
04:26Good to be with you.
04:27Likewise.