Here Comes the Rain, Wind and Coastal Flooding to NH Seacoast

The Seacoast region is battening down the proverbial hatches as a storm that will bring heavy rain, gusty winds, coastal flooding and a high potential for power outages is right on track to start Tuesday afternoon.

Precipitation begins as snow Tuesday afternoon mostly in interior areas but those closest to the coast get just rain, according to meteorologist Jon Palmer at the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine.

"Probably by 9:00 or 10:00 PM, almost everybody in the Seacoast is going to be all rain through the remainder of the night and through Wednesday," Palmer told Seacoast Current, adding that the heaviest of the rain will fall in the overnight hours.

A Flood Watch is in effect Tuesday night through Wednesday afternoon as the  rain will fall on snow which accumulated over a foot on Sunday leading to melt across southern New Hampshire and southwestern Maine,  Melting snow combined with up to 3 inches of rain will produce flash flooding of small streams and poor drainage in urban areas.

The deeper snowpack from the foothills northward is expected to hold, reducing the flood risk in those areas.

A Coastal Flood Warning is also posted  as 1-2 feet of could swamp low lying areas whipped wind gusts to 55-60 mph and close some roads.

"We're expecting minor to moderate flooding possible. There's likely going to be some splash over and some beach erosion. For the marine waters we have a storm warning out right now that's going to be for wind gusts of up to 60 to 65 miles an hour out on the water.

Eversource said it has brought in extra crews to work alongside its personnel pre-positioned around  the state ahead of the storm.

“With the heavy, wet snow in the forecast at the onset of this week’s storm followed by substantial amounts of rain coming on the heels of the weekend snowstorm, the ground will be heavily saturated, and that combined with the forecasted strong winds can bring down trees and limbs onto power lines and equipment, causing outages,” said Eversource New Hampshire President of Electric Operations Doug Foley.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via X (Twitter) @DanAlexanderNH