HURRICANE MELISSA UPDATE
The hurricane peaked in intensity (175 MPH sustained winds – category 5) overnight and is now approaching landfall on the south coast of Jamaica, the center to move across the west central portion of the island today, where catastrophic damage will occur. We can only hope shelter is adequate enough to save the lives of those in the path. As previously mentioned, there will be significant impact over eastern Jamaica as well, but they will be outside the strongest core of the storm. Also wind damage and flooding rain impacts extend eastward to Haiti, with the Dominican Republic less impacted for being further east. The path of the storm then takes it across eastern Cuba, the southeastern Bahamas, and the Turks and Caicos, as a weakening but still formidable hurricane with damaging wind and flooding rain along its path. By late Thursday night / early Friday it is accelerating by Bermuda as a weakening hurricane with much lesser impact there, then off into the Atlantic it goes, losing tropical characteristics thereafter. There may be a minor infusion of some of the moisture from this system into the one that’s going to impact our region but not enough to really reach our area with any notable increase in rainfall amount potential…
DAYS 1-5 (OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 1)
For our area, there is not a lot of change to the discussion and forecast from yesterday, so summarizing, we find ourselves in a northeasterly air flow today becoming more easterly during Wednesday. A deck of stratus clouds is already moving into southeastern MA as of daybreak today and will be most prominent south of Boston today while sunshine is more prevalent to the northwest. If you are out from under this stratus deck you’ll notice high cloudiness advancing from southwest to northeast across the sky, and this is from the previously-mentioned initial storm system passing to our south. It makes its “closest” pass tonight and early Wednesday when the high to mid level cloud shield will be thickest over our region, adding some patchy light rain mainly to southeastern MA (Cape & Islands most notably) while some coastal area drizzle can occur under thicker stratus clouds due to moisture advecting off the ocean. The latter will become more established through the region during the day Wednesday as the first storm system starts to move away but keeps the broad scale onshore wind flow going. As this takes place, a second storm takes shape to the south, and the track of this one is “inside” or west of our region, but not by that much. This brings a ribbon of heavier rainfall up and across our region Thursday night, occurring over a several hour period from around dusk to pre-dawn before it moves out to the east and northeast. As low pressure wraps up northwest of our area during Friday (Halloween), we’ll experience dry weather with a gusty westerly breeze but air not all that chilly during the day. By evening it cools down, but not substantially, and stays rain-free with varying amounts of clouds playing with a waxing gibbous moon in the sky as a gusty breeze blows making a “spooky” trick or treat evening. Some areas that had a lot of leaf drop may still have wet leaves underfoot that have not had a chance to dry yet, so keep this in mind of walking or driving around that evening. Heading to Saturday, the first day of November, it looks like we will have a dry, breezy, and seasonably cool day with a sun/cloud mix as we’re still under the influence of that low pressure area as it moves into southeastern Canada.
TODAY: Most sun northwest of Boston, less sun southeast with low clouds moving in from the ocean. Increasing high clouds south to north above that later. Highs 48-55. Wind NE 5-15 MPH.
TONIGHT / WEDNESDAY: Mostly cloudy. Patchy drizzle possible especially eastern coastal locations. Chance of light rain South Coast early Wednesday. Lows 41-48. Highs 48-55. Wind NE 5-15 MPH.
WEDNESDAY NIGHT: Cloudy. Possible drizzle. Lows 43-50. Wind NE to E 5-15 MPH.
THURSDAY: Cloudy. Patchy drizzle. Rain arrives late-day / evening southwest to northeast. Highs 50-57. Wind E 10-20 MPH, higher gusts especially coastal areas.
THURSDAY NIGHT: Cloudy with rain, heavy at times. Lows 48-55. Wind SE 10-20 MPH, higher gusts especially coastal areas.
FRIDAY: Sun/cloud mix. Highs 57-64. Wind SW 10-20 MPH, higher gusts.
FRIDAY NIGHT: Variably cloudy. Lows 38-45. Wind W 10-20 MPH, higher gusts.
SATURDAY: Partly sunny. Highs 52-59. Wind W 10-20 MPH, higher gusts.
DAYS 6-10 (NOVEMBER 2-6)
Watch for passing systems to produce unsettled weather episodes November 2 and 4 with fair weather on the other days, based on current timing of a pattern of quick-moving systems. Temperatures variable will end up not far from normal for the period.
DAYS 11-15 (NOVEMBER 7-11)
Next best shot at a passing unsettled weather system is mid to late-period. Temperatures near to slightly below normal.