A storm packing a mix of heavy rains and winds knocked out power to thousands of homes across the Northeast on Christmas morning.
There were more than 7,000 customers without power early Friday in Massachusetts. State officials and utility companies had warned that the winds could knock down trees, bringing power lines down with them.
Winds gusted more than 60 miles per hour in some areas during the early morning hours.
Here’s a breakdown of some of the peak wind gusts:
- Duxbury – 68 mph
- Blue Hill – 67 mph
- Walpole – 65 mph
- Hull – 63 mph
- Woods Hole – 60 mph
- Fairhaven – 58 mph
- Rockport – 57 mph
- Deer Island – 56 mph
- Eastham – 54 mph
- Dennis – 52 mph
The National Weather Service reported that one to three inches of rain had fallen across parts of Massachusetts by Friday afternoon.
The combination of heavy rain and melting snow resulted in flooding in some of areas. There was heavy flooding on portions of Interstate 95 in Cranston, Rhode Island.
Adding to the flooding woes were temperatures that rose into the 60s, accelerating the melting of existing snow cover.
Here’s a breakdown of rainfall totals across Massachusetts, as of 6:30 p.m.
- Ayer – 4.08″
- Barre – 3.70″
- Westhampton – 3.40″
- Holden – 3.25″
- Southwick – 3.12″
- Ashfield – 2.87″
- Millis – 2.85″
- Douglas – 2.84″
- Conway – 2.85″
- Attleboro – 2.74″
- Worcester Airport – 2.73″
- Wrentham – 2.72″
- Leominster – 2.67″
- Warwick – 2.51″
- Sterling – 2.44″
- Fitchburg – 2.43″
- Westfield – 2.38″
- Wayland – 2.33″
- Westwood – 2.32″
- Walpole – 2.31″
- Wellesley – 2.27″
- Ashburnham – 2.26″
- Shirley – 2.19″
- Mendon – 2.15″
- Norton – 2.11″
- Hopkinton – 2.07″
- Chelmsford – 2.01″
- Natick – 2″
Eversource was cancelling vacations for many employees and bringing in crews from as far away as Pennsylvania and Canada to help restore power in Massachusetts.
Unitil Corp., an electric and gas utility in New England, opened its regional emergency operations centers in response to the high winds.
Temperatures across New England reached the middle 50s to middle 60s, which made parts of the region warmer on Christmas morning than Miami, Florida, where temperatures dropped into the low-to-mid 50s overnight.
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