Flooding still a concern as torrential rain moves out of Massachusetts
BOSTON - As the torrential rain moves out Wednesday morning, there will be issues with flooding, wind damage and power outages across eastern Massachusetts.
Flood watches remain in effect for nearly all of southern New England through midday Wednesday.
The heavy rain should taper off by 8 a.m. and most towns will have between 2 and 3 inches, with some areas getting up to 4 inches.
This will occur along with very mild temperatures and high dewpoints for January, causing a rapid snowmelt across southern New England.
Flooding concerns in Massachusetts
This will undoubtedly lead to flooding of rivers and streams as well as poor drainage and urban flood issues.
All the rivers with yellow, orange and red dots are predicted to be near or in some flood stage by Wednesday.
High wind watches in eastern Massachusetts; power outages expected
The wind will also be a major factor.
The National Weather Service has issued high wind warnings for coastal Essex County, Berkshire County and all of southeastern Massachusetts. Winds could gust 50-70 mph in these areas. Throughout the rest of Massachusetts, there is a wind advisory in place.
Much of the rest of eastern Mass., just inland from I-95, could see south-southeast gusts 45-55 mph.
Given the amount of heavy, wet snowfall on the trees, this is terrible timing for winds of this magnitude.
We anticipate widespread tree and power line damage and there's a potential for power outages.
Coastal flood threat
The National Weather Service has issued a Coastal Flood Advisory for the entire east coast of Massachusetts for the Wednesday morning high tide cycle.
There is a Coastal Flood Warning in effect for southern Bristol County and Dukes County as well as the Maine/New Hampshire coast.
High tides are generally between 6-7 a.m. in Buzzards Bay and closer to 10 a.m. farther east over Cape Cod and up in Boston and Cape Ann. Thankfully the strongest winds will have passed by the time we reach the high tide Wednesday morning. Therefore, we expect only minor to pockets of moderate flooding in the typical prone areas.
The WBZ Weather Team will keep you updated hour by hour on WBZ-TV, WBZ.com and streaming on CBS News Boston.
