Noreaster

I love extreme weather. Give me blizzards, tornadoes, hurricanes and 20 below. I find it all fascinating. Yesterday, for my last day in New England we had a fine noreaster. The forecast had been predicting the storm for days, and on Sunday, I found myself wondering if it would be another case of excessive hype. We had a steady, sleety rain and not much more. By evening, the rain and wind had both picked up some, and it was seemi g a bit stormy by the time we left for Salem and Dad’s birthday party.

Monday morning at White Beach

On the way home from the party, the wind was really howling. We drove past White and Black beaches on the way home. The tide was very high, and waves in the normally quiet Black Beach side were crashing against the seawall and onto the roadway. But it was dark, so little was visible. All night long, I listened to the wind howl outside. Early this morning, the wind was still very high, and Leon and I went to drive along the shore. Most of these pictures are his.

Coolidge Point

At 8:00 Am, three hours from high tide, the water was alwready nearly at the road on White Beach. Black beach was not so bad- the wind was blowing the tops off of the waves there. As is typical for bad storms, the real drama was over in Magnolia. The pictures here only hint at the violent show that the ocean was putting on. Winds were clocked at 46 mph sustained out of the northeast at about that time, with gusts to hurricane force. I wondered what high tide would bring.

An angry sea off of Magnolia Massachusetts

By 11:00, roughly high tide, the wind had subsided considerably. Flooding had reached a point that we were unable to drive down Ocean Street to White and Black Beaches for a good view. The entire salt marsh was flooded. The really damaging storms are those where the peak winds coincide with high tide. This was not the case in this storm, however there was lots of damage all up the coast. This is already being referred to as the Patriots Day storm, and was a big enough one that it will be remembered. My flight home has only been a bit delayed, and I’m glad that we got an opportunity to see the spectacle.

How we wash our windows on Cape Ann