PORTLAND, Maine — The US East Coast began a whiplash-inducing area of weather on Wednesday that was rainy, windy and potentially dangerous, partly due to an atmospheric river and the developing bomb cyclone.
Places like western Maine could see freezing rain, downpours, unusually high temperatures and damaging winds — all in the span of a day, said Derek Schroeter, a forecaster with the National Weather Service.
The heavy rain and strong winds will continue in many areas until Wednesday evening, and flooding is possible in some places, forecasters said. Utilities also braced for possible power outages due to damage caused by wind speeds that could exceed 60 miles per hour in some areas.
One of the most important factors that determine the weather is an atmospheric riverwhich is a long band of water vapor that can transport moisture from the tropics to more northern areas, said Schroeter, based in Gray, Maine.
The storm has the ability to hit New England hard because it can tap moisture from the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the southeastern US, and transport them to places like Maine. The state was preparing for a “multi-sided storm” that could produce two to three inches of rain in some areas, Schroeter said.
Similar conditions were possible elsewhere from Tuesday evening into Wednesday evening.
“We’re looking at the risk of slippery travel (Tuesday night) with the freezing rain,” Schroeter said, “and we’re going to watch for the possibility of flash flooding and sharp rises in streams as temperatures rise into the 50s (10-15 Celsius).”
Forecasters also said the storm had the potential to involve what meteorologists call a process bombogenesisor a ‘bomb cyclone’. That is the rapid intensification of a cyclone in a short period of time, and it has the potential to cause heavy rainfall.
Parts of the Northeast were already preparing for bad weather. In Maine, some schools were delayed on Tuesday, which started with several inches of snow. A flood watch for Vermont runs from Wednesday afternoon through Thursday morning.
The city of Montpelier, Vermont, advised residents to prepare for mild floods in the area and to lift objects in basements and low areas prone to flooding. The city said Tuesday that it has been in contact with the National Weather Service and Vermont Dam Safety and will “actively monitor river levels as this storm passes.”
Ski resorts across the Northeast prepared visitors for a potentially messy day on Wednesday. Stratton Mountain Resort, in southern Vermont, posted on its website that customers should “make sure to pack your Gore-Tex gear because it will get wet.”
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Associated Press writer Lisa Rathke contributed to this story in Marshfield, Vermont.