On the eve of a holiday week when more than 50 million Americans are planning to travel, the FOX Forecast Center is monitoring the arrival of a cold front and a storm system off the Eastern Seaboard that are expected to end the Northeast’s streak of beautiful weekends.
According to computer forecast models, precipitation is expected to begin on Friday, with impacts from a coastal low arriving by Saturday.
Those impacts are expected to vary by location, with coastal communities in New England being in line for receiving the worst of the impacts, which could include rain and gusty winds.
“You’ve got this front approaching from the West that kind of helps guide this system up the coastline,” FOX Weather Meteorologist Ian Oliver said. “We had two dry weekends in a row in the Northeast. It will not be three by the looks of it.”
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Fortunately, for much of the Interstate 95 corridor, any rounds of rain are expected to be brief and remain on the lighter side.
Cities such as Philadelphia and New York are not expected to see rainfall accumulations above an inch, while Boston might see an inch or two, depending on how quickly tropical moisture lifts northwards.
The precipitation could even include snow showers in the higher elevations of New York, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine.
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Communities closer to the heart of the system face the potential of seeing heavier precipitation.
Places like Martha’s Vinyard and Downeast Maine have the potential for seeing multiple inches of precipitation through Saturday.
“Especially coastal Maine, Downeast Maine … a really tough year,” FOX Weather Meteorologist Haley Meier said. “They could see some pretty hefty rain over the next few days with this storm.”
The National Weather Service office in Boston says it is not expecting any flooding concerns from the storm system, but it will be windy at times.
Wind gusts of at least 20-30 mph are expected to impact the region on Friday and last well into Saturday.
Behind the cold front, temperatures are expected to fall to values that are well below average – a pattern that could stick around through most of the Thanksgiving holiday week.