Brian Stewart Photography: A Historical October Nor' Easter

The eastern seaboard was slammed by and early season Nor' Easter that had the characteristics of one that would occur in mid winter! What made this so unusual was the fact that just away from the coast many locations received measurable snow, in October! Why it is has happened before you kind of had your doubts, I know I did! By the end of the week though models had converged on a solution that would leave many spots in interior SNE digging out from at least a foot of snow or more! As with most Nor' Easters they come with many components snow, rain, wind and coastal flooding!

Most locations on the south shore and Cape Cod did not see much in the way of snow that accumulated. The ocean temperatures are still in the 50's and with a north east wind temperatures held steady in the upper 30's low 40's and only toward the end temperatures fell once the wind shifted around more to the north and colder air could bleed in. In the end it was a little too late and all we saw here in Scituate was a few hours of snow that did not amount to much.

Winds were another fierce component to the storm as high wind warnings were posted in southeastern sections of SNE including Cape Cod and the Islands. For the immediate coastal waters storm warnings were hoisted, while the outer waters saw hurricane force wind warnings issued! Luckily we did not lose power this time around!

The coastal flood aspect of the storm was not as bad as it could have been. Coastal flood warnings were in place for the Eastern Massachusetts coastline and the potential was there for a moderate flood event, with the combination of a 2-3 foot surge and high seas pounding the coast! Luckily at the time high tide approached around 2:30 AM the wind had shifted to more of a north direction as opposed to North East, as a result the wind was more parallel to the shore rather than from the east which would have drove the water into the shore! In the end only pockets of minor flooding were seen in the vulnerable locations in town.

Today the day after the storm the seas were still running high so I took advantage of the nice dry conditions and made my way out to some of my favorite locations in town!