Hello everyone!

Today will feature seasonable temperatures and increasing cloud cover as our next storm begins to intensify out in the Plains. High clouds have just about arrived in southwestern NH as I write this a little before 6 AM while low/mid level clouds lurk a bit farther southwest. We’ll see those mid/high clouds arrive this morning while low/mid clouds put an end to any filtered sunshine this afternoon. Winds will turn towards the south as high pressure slides offshore which means chilly temps continue for the Midcoast while temps rebound farther west. Look for highs ranging from 45 in the mountains and along the peninsulas east of Brunswick to 60 in southern NH. Precipitation associated with tomorrow’s storm looks to hold off until the early morning hours, even in SW NH.

Speaking of tomorrow’s storm, unfortunately it’s looking like another moderate to possibly high-impact event. As low pressure explosively intensifies in the Great Lakes, a whole lot of air will be set in (quite rapid) motion across eastern North America. A feature known as a “low level jet” (short for low-level jet stream) will develop over the area tomorrow morning bringing hurricane force winds to within a few hundred feet of the surface. The biggest question is how much of that wind can actually make it to the ground. At the moment, most of the coastline looks like a lock to see winds >40 mph. The Midcoast peninsulas will likely gust above 50 mph. Farther inland, friction and cold air damming will conspire to hold gusts <30 mph. I’ll have another update tomorrow morning with a refined forecast, but unfortunately it’s time to prepare for another round of power outages especially along the coast and east of I-95 north of Brunswick (“interior Midcoast”). Hopefully we’ll avoid the worst case scenario with these winds.

-Jack