As wicked rains and strong gusty winds race up the Atlantic, Greater Boston is bracing for a massive, multi-day nor’easter packing hurricane-like conditions—a storm so severe it has already washed out Ed Sheeran’s weekend at Gillette Stadium and forced a Friday scheduling scramble at Fenway Park.
“It is not a pretty picture,” AccuWeather senior meteorologist Kines told the Herald Friday afternoon. “The storm is going to get closer to us; winds are going to get stronger than what they are now, and eventually we’re going to start seeing a decent amount of rain across the area.”
The only reason the long-lasting storm, which intensified on Friday, is classified as a nor’easter rather than a hurricane, Kines said, is that the ocean waters are not warm enough.
As the steady, wind-lashed rain barreled up the coast, Ed Sheeran canceled his weekend concerts at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, with the stadium and his team pulling the plug on the shows.
The nor’easter also caused the Red Sox to alter their weekend series with the Cubs at Fenway Park, as the two teams played in a day-night doubleheader on Friday. The second game of the twofer was moved up from 6:05 to 5:35 p.m. “due to potential weather impacts later this evening.”
The two teams are set to finish their series at Tropicana Field in Tampa on Sunday. Nearly all outdoor events scheduled this weekend — from road races to farmers’ markets — have been postponed.
Millions of people were under warnings associated with the storm, which prompted people on islands near the Cape to head to the mainland in the days ahead of the nor’easter’s arrival. Dangerous flooding was expected along the Mid-Atlantic coast, particularly near New Jersey and Delaware, according to the National Weather Service.
The National Weather Service’s Boston-area office detailed “no significant changes to the forecast” over the weekend, except for shifting the “strongest” winds further west, given the nor’easter’s latest model track.
Greater Boston is under high-wind, storm, coastal flood and gale warnings, with intense gusts and rain expected to arrive Friday evening and overnight.
Kines said anybody in and around Greater Boston is “fair game” for wind gusts of 40 to 60 mph. On the Cape and Islands, gusts could be even stronger, potentially hitting 60 to 80 mph, he added.
“It sounds like a hurricane,” Kines said via phone, “and if you look at the satellite pictures of the storm out over the Atlantic, right now it’s east of Delaware, it looks like a hurricane.”
To go with the whipping wind, residents across the Bay State can expect well over an inch of rain during the multi-day storm.
The highest rain totals are predicted in southeastern Massachusetts and the Cape and Islands, with 4 to 6 inches. In the Berkshires and western valleys, the forecast drops to between 1.5 and 2.5 inches.
“As far as a classification is concerned,” Kines said of the storm, “the big thing is it isn’t over warm enough water to be a hurricane. You need water temperatures of at least 80 (degrees).”
“The effects of this will be the same as a hurricane,” he added. “I expect that if it were a hurricane, people might take it a little more seriously. If you’re along the coast tonight, tomorrow, tomorrow night, Sunday, it’s going to be nasty and dangerous, for that matter.”
The city of Boston issued a coastal storm warning ahead of the nor’easter on Thursday, as Mayor Michelle Wu and her administration prepared for the impacts.
BCYF centers and the Boston Public Library will be open at normal hours over the weekend, along with a network of emergency shelters through the Boston Public Health Commission.
The Boston Water & Sewer Commission had crews out earlier Friday clearing off catch basins, the grates that get the rainwater into the pipes and off the streets, to minimize flooding, Wu said at an afternoon briefing.
“It is quite rare that we would need to be preparing for a nor’easter as early as September,” the mayor said. “We are taking every measure to protect our families, protect our streets and public spaces that are at risk of flooding, and to get the word out.”
NWS meteorologist Matthew Belk said nor’easters are not unusual as New England moves into fall, but one concern this early in the season is that leaves remain on the trees, creating more wind resistance.
That could increase the risk of downed limbs, which in turn can cause power outages and leave debris in roads, he said.
“It’s definitely going to be a case of the closer to the coast you are,” Belk said, “the more impacts from the storm you’re likely to see.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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