(Bloomberg) -- A potentially unprecedented nor’easter is going to roar up the East Coast, soaking New York and the rest of the Northeast starting Wednesday.As much as 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) of rain will get wrung out of the storm, starting off the U.S. Southeast late Tuesday and working its way up the coast Wednesday into Thursday, said Patrick Burke, a lead branch forecaster with the U.S. Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.“It’s a fairly strong low for October,” Burke said. “If this was mid-winter it would be a major snow storm for somebody.”
The disturbance may become so intense that it sets an October low-pressure record as it nears Boston and southern New England Thursday, Burke said. Low pressure is a measure of storm’s intensity, which can be a portent to the strength of its winds and depth of its rainfall. Pressure at the heart of hurricanes and blizzards will often get quite low.
The storm comes a week after Tropical Storm Melissa grew out of another early season nor’easter off Massachusetts. Unlike Melissa, which dissipated Monday, the latest storm will keep its worst winds offshore, making life miserable for mariners, while leaving a trough of flooding rain from New York into northern New England. Waves at sea could reach 16 feet or higher off New England, the National Weather Service said.A gale warning has been issued for the waters along the East Coast and a storm warning is in effect from the mid-Atlantic to New England.
To contact the reporter on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at bsullivan10@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tina Davis at tinadavis@bloomberg.net, Joe Carroll, Christine Buurma
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