Violent, waterlogged storm in eastern U.S. finally pulls away
After terrorizing the Tennessee Valley with tornadoes and lashing the East Coast with rain, snow and wind, the strong storm system that’s been marching across the Lower 48 since late last week is finally leaving out of the Northeast. In its wake lay a fresh plastering of snow inland and soaked soils from drenching rains near the coast, part of the same multiday meteorological mayhem.
Saturday brought the storm’s most violent weather: An EF3 tornado (on the 0-to-5 scale for intensity) hit Hendersonville, Tenn., just north of Nashville. At least six people died in tornadoes in Middle Tennessee. Roughly two dozen tornadoes touched down from the Kentucky-Tennessee border to the Florida Panhandle; the National Weather Service is still conducting storm surveys. Several “tornado emergencies” were issued warning that residents were in a “potentially dangerous” situation.
On Sunday, another tornado hit Garner, N.C., in the southeast suburbs of Raleigh, shortly before 1 p.m. Its 110-mph winds tossed debris high into the air. The tornado was on the ground for 1.5 miles.
Then the system swung up the Eastern Seaboard, dropping significant rain and snow and causing flooding in parts of the Mid-Atlantic and New England. As of Monday midday, it was withdrawing into the Canadian Maritimes, where winds over 80 mph were expected to batter portions of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
At noontime Monday, the storm’s quickly maturing low pressure center was pushing across the Maine-Canada border. The storm system’s cold front was swinging east, ahead of which southerly winds were pushing northward. A strong jet stream about half a mile above the surface was generating 80-to-100-mph winds; some of that momentum went down to the ground in strong wind gusts in eastern New England. The worst of those winds is still expected to batter Atlantic Canada.
Stateside, the last of the heavy rain left Cape Cod around 10 a.m. but was lingering in Down East Maine.
Most of the East Coast north of South Carolina and east of the Appalachians recorded rain totals of between 1 and 2 inches. New York City received 1.82 inches of rain, Philadelphia registered 2.07 inches, and Washington posted 1.78 inches.
There were, however, two zones of heavier rain. One was in portions of the Connecticut River and Blackstone Valleys in central and eastern Massachusetts, and the other in Connecticut and Rhode Island, especially between Interstates 84 and 95. That’s where widespread flood warnings were issued after 3 to 5 inches of rain fell.
Wallingford, Conn., just north of New Haven, logged 4.96 inches; Norwich, Conn., got 4.55 inches, and Holliston, Mass., just southwest of Boston, tallied 4.84 inches. For comparison, Boston’s average December precipitation from rain and melted snow is 4.3 inches.
There was even a report of 6.78 inches in Franklin, Mass., near the Rhode Island border. Part of the reason southern New England saw so much rain was because of downpours training, or repeatedly moving over the same areas, as the storm system pivoted.
A second bull’s-eye of rain occurred where thunderstorms bolstered its intensity, namely from central North Carolina to the Virginia Tidewater. Kernersville, N.C., just east of Winston-Salem, received 4.39 inches. Raleigh got 4.36 inches. And in Virginia, the town of Dunnsville, northeast of Richmond and southeast of Fredericksburg, got 4.58 inches. A few 4-inch amounts were also reported on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
On the cold side of the system, significant snows fell. That was the case in Upstate New York, parts of Pennsylvania and northern and western New England.
Some of the greatest totals included:
- 13.7 inches in Roxbury, N.Y. (midway between Binghamton and Albany)
- 9 inches in Stamford, N.Y.
- 8 inches in Lake Placid, N.Y.
- 4.8 inches in Honesdale, Pa., northeast of Scranton
- 3 inches in Montpelier, Vt.
The Mid-Atlantic received more snow than expected on the backside of the storm overnight as temperatures crashed. Upward of 2 inches fell in Montgomery Village, Md., a half-hour north of the nation’s capital. Even the District saw some snow, mainly on grassy areas.
Up to 3.8 inches was tallied in Bolivar, along Interstate 270 in northwestern Maryland. Two to three inches fell along the Mason-Dixon Line, and thundersnow was even reported in the Baltimore suburbs.
In the Northeast, particularly along Cape Cod and across Down East Maine, high-wind warnings were hoisted in the expectation of damaging gusts. Meteorologists knew it would be a tricky forecast - one that largely depended on when the low-level jet stream strengthened. As it turns out, that intensification, and resultant uptick in winds, happened just after the jet stream swept east of the coastline.
That meant that while winds were intense, most areas didn’t see the 60-to-75-mph gusts that some models had simulated. Here’s a look at some of the strongest gusts:
- 61 mph offshore of Maine at the Mount Desert Rock lighthouse
- 54 mph at Bar Harbor, Maine
- 51 mph on Nantucket, Mass.
- 51 mph on the island of Matinicus Rock, Maine
- 46 mph in New Bedford, Mass.
- 44 mph at Boston’s Logan Airport