FLOOD WARNINGS ARE UP FOR THE HOOSIC RIVER AT WILLIAMSTOWN, MA AND THE WALLOMSAC RIVER AT BENNINGTON, VT… FLOOD WARNINGS FOR THE CT RIVER AT MONTAGUE AND POSSIBLY NORTHAMPTON MAY NEED HOISTING LATER TONIGHT OR EARLY IN THE MORNING… PEAK RIVER RISE IS CHRISTMAS AFTERNOON, SUBSIDING AT NIGHT… DENSE FOG, HEAVY RAIN, STRONG GUSTY WINDS, SOME POWER OUTAGES, AND THUNDER ARE ALL IN PLAY WITH OUR MULTI-HAZARD CHRISTMAS STORM AS HIGH WIND WARNINGS, WIND ADVISORIES, AND FLOOD WATCHES CONTINUE… (5:20PM THURS)

Good evening everybody, I hope that if you’re celebrating Christmas this year, you have a wonderful Christmas Eve tonight (and of course, a lovely Christmas Day tomorrow, in light of the potential weather hazards and, oh yeah, The 21st Century Plague).

For tonight, actually, aside from patchy dense fog that develops as dewpoints rise as the night wears on, it won’t be too bad out.

Scattered showers will continue to develop, but they should be generally light to moderate, and not overly impactful.

It’s the visibility issue with the fog that could hamper travel, so if you are out and about, take it slow if you hit some fog banks. As the snow pack melts and the wind picks up late tonight, the dense fog impact should abate as we move through pre-dawn hours as southerly winds gust 20-40mph until about 4am-ish.

Temps will rise tonight into and through the 50s for many of us, and dewpoints now in the 40s are expected to crest into the low 50s overnight.

It’s after midnight when we can expect the brunt of this storm system’s rain and wind.

RAINFALL
The heaviest rain will fall between 3am-11am.

Originally, it looked like rain would abate by noon, but it looks like it’s going to last a little longer, even after the heaviest rain and strongest wind blows east of the WMass/CMass region.

We should generally see 1-3″ of rainfall, with some 4″ amounts possible if we get some thunderstorms to move through in the early morning hours.

After the heaviest squall line blows through west to east during the mid to later morning, some showers are still expected into the early afternoon, but rain should quit before sunset.

Then it will get colder at night, with some lake effect snow showers possible in the Berkshires, Taconics, southern Greens, and Litchfields. Patchy black ice will also be possible very late at night and early Saturday morning as temps drop into the low to mid 20s for lows.

FLOODING
Street flooding via ponding on road ways is expected by early morning as snow continues to melt rapidly. Basement flooding is possible due to recent cold ground, and snow melt and rainfall having nowhere to really soak into the deeper ground, so make sure your sump pumps are ready. And river flooding could impact SVT and WMass, especially the Hoosic, Walloomsac, and Connecticut.

WIND/OUTAGES
The strongest wind is expected between 5am-9am or so (maybe as late as 10am in eastern Worcester County and northeasternmost CT/Windham County… the hamlet of wind!).

North-central and northeast CT into southern Worcester County and points east and south continue to look to get the highest wind gusts of 50-65mph, with some 70mph gusts possible (mainly in southeast MA and northern RI).

In WMass, northern CMass, SVT and SWNH, I think we’ll see more like 40-55mph gusts, but we can’t rule some 60mph gusts, especially in Hampden County and some of the higher terrain areas of the western hilltowns, Berkshires, Litchfields, and Taconics.

I only really expect isolated outages north of the Route 2 corridor, with scattered outages south of there down to the MA/CT state line, and south of there and in southern Worcester County and points southeast, we could see scattered to widespread outages, assuming the wind gusts of 55-70mph materialize.

PREPARATION
That, of course, means tree damage and property damage, so with winds blowing from the southeast and south, perhaps you can move your car to a position away from where a tree could fall on it.

Charge your devices, do some of your cooking tonight if you can to get some of it out of the way, in case you lose power, or have a plan to use a grill if you can. Secure outdoor loose objects, especially if exposed to southerly winds.

MY WISH
I wish I didn’t have to be a bearer of bad news during a holiday time when people really need some good news for a change after this very challenging year.

But, I’d rather you be aware of the potentials, then be caught off guard and have unforeseen problems make things worse for you.

I hope this is helpful in that regard, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas Eve tonight, I pray most of us keep our power through tomorrow morning.

All we can do is make the best out of the cards that are dealt to us in life, and so I hope we can all do just that, and be grateful for what and who we do have in our lives. <3 Have a great night, and if anything changes, I may post later tonight, but probably won't post again until early tomorrow morning, as I will be up with the weather and will update you as soon as I can. Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!