Fierce nor’easter set to pummel state with wind, rain, snow

jbissonnette@pawtuckettimes.com

Folklore says that March weather comes in like a lion and it’ll be roaring all day today as northern Rhode Island is in for a messy combination of wind, rain and snow that could lead to flooding and isolated power outages.

Bill Simpson, a spokesperson with the National Weather Service, said winds this morning will gust between 30 and 40 miles per hour, climbing to 45 miles per hour in the mid-afternoon before peaking in the early evening into the overnight hours. When the wind howls at its strongest, gusts could reach 50 miles per hour, leading to the potential for isolated power outages across northern Rhode Island.

Breezy conditions are far from the only concern coming from Mother Nature, Simpson said. Rainfall that started overnight will continue into early Saturday morning, with up to three inches of rain predicted in the northeast corner of the state.

“As far as coastal flooding, that’s mostly in Massachusetts. Rhode Island should be OK as far as damage to the coast,” Simpson said. “I’m not saying there won’t be flooding, but with the northeast-to-north winds, everything is sort of pushing off Rhode Island.”

That said, areas that see heavy rainfall totals on Friday could be in for some minor flooding.

“With that kind of rain, small streams, urban streets, poor drainage flooding is certainly a possibility,” Simpson said.

Just to the west, though, the precipitation is forecast to transition to wet, heavy snow in the afternoon. Simpson said the best chance of accumulating snow will be in northwestern Rhode Island, where three-to-four inches of wet, heavy snow is possible.

Predicting snow accumulations, Simpson said, is the toughest call in forecasting today’s storm, as the low pressure system that’s bringing all of this messy weather to New England could track off the mid-Atlantic coast, pulling in more cold air. If that happens, higher snowfall totals are possible in most of northern Rhode Island, not just the hills near the Connecticut border.

The “jackpot” for snow accumulation today will be in western New England and the Berkshires, where up to a foot of sloppy, slushy snow is plausible.

The storm’s departure from New England will be slow but steady tonight into early Saturday morning.

Overnight lows tonight will hover just above freezing, around 33 degrees, which means the majority of snowfall is not expected to stick to the roads.

The low pressure system will slowly drift away on Saturday, but it will remain mostly cloudy that day with some breaks of sunshine in the afternoon. Temperatures on Saturday are forecast to peak around the mid-40s, Simpson said.