‘Significant’ nor’easter brings high winds and heavy rain to US east coast

High winds and heavy rain were beginning to batter New England on Friday as a “significant” nor’easter, the first such storm of the fall, threatened to disrupt weekend plans for millions.In the Pacific Ocean, meanwhile, three separate hurricanes, one threatening “catastrophic flooding”, including life-threatening flash floods, in Hawaii, were churning as a record-setting El Niño continued to amplify severe weather events on a global scale.Forecasters said up to 40 million people across multiple US states could be affected by the early season northeasterly storm that was already lashing coastal areas of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York’s Long Island by Friday morning.“Strong winds and rough seas along with a prolonged period of steady rain across the region are expected through this weekend,” the National Weather Service’s Boston office warned in a post on X, adding that rain could last until Monday.“Beach erosion, coastal flooding, and wind damage including downed limbs and power outages are our main concerns.”Areas farther inland were also bracing for the arrival of the storm, which has the potential to deliver hurricane force winds despite uncertainty over exactly where it will go.The online AccuWeather service said winds of 40mph-60mph were expected along the coast from New Jersey to Maine, beginning late Friday, and up to 80mph in and around Montauk, New York.“The nor’easter has strengthened over the Atlantic and is expected to stay closer to the shoreline. This will bring more rain inland, but more importantly stronger winds closer to shore,” Elizabeth Danco, an AccuWeather expert meteorologist, said in a statement.“This region has experienced soaking rains in recent weeks, making it particularly susceptible to falling trees and flooding.”While the worst of the impacts, especially flooding and beach erosion, will occur closer to the coast, travelers were warned to expect significant flight cancellations and delays, and difficult driving conditions.Up to 8 inches of rain were forecast for some areas of south-eastern Massachusetts, and up to 2 inches in Boston on Friday into Saturday, and the same in New York City a day later. High wind warnings were in place in Boston and neighboring areas on Friday morning.“New York City and especially Boston need to stay weather aware this weekend, and prepare the same as you would for a tropical storm,” the Weather Channel said on its website.It also addressed the existence of the nor’easter so early in the season. “You might think it is too early for a nor’easter, but the criteria are met more often than you would think,” the Weather Channel said.“Most people usually think of snow and ice with nor’easters because [they] do tend to occur more in the late fall and winter.”Extreme weather is also occurring in the Pacific, where hurricanes Nolo, Odalys and Polo were bringing varying impacts on Friday. Nolo was menacing the islands of Hawaii, and expected to be a major category 3 storm as it passes about 80 miles south of Big Island early on Saturday.Although not forecast to make landfall, Nolo will bring “five days of torrential rain through Monday, catastrophic flooding and mudslides”, AccuWeather’s hurricane experts said.Polo, which intensified rapidly from a tropical storm to a category 5 monster hurricane earlier this week, remained offshore of Mexico on Friday, about 250 miles south-south-west of the Jalisco coast. Its 160mph winds “are likely to cause life-threatening surf, rip currents, and coastal flooding”, in the region, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.The storm was forecast to curve around and make landfall somewhere in Baja California on Sunday night or Monday morning as a much-weakened hurricane. Odalys, a category 4 hurricane, was forecast to remain at sea with few to no impacts on land.The El Niño that has contributed to 18 named storms in the Pacific basin this season has had a converse effect in the Atlantic where, for the first time since 1914, no hurricanes formed by 21 September. Both seasons run until 30 November.