Strong Wind in Northwest Providence, Rhode Island

In Cumberland at 750 AM EST, a tree and power lines were down on Tower Hill Road. In Lincoln at 857 AM EST, a tree and wires were down on Twin River Road.

An anomalously deep, full-latitude mid-level trough over the Mississippi Valley caused a strong frontal system to move up the Appalachians. It brought strong to damaging winds, heavy rain with minor flooding, and well above normal temperatures to southern New England early on Christmas Day. Winds generally gusted to 40 to 60 mph, except 65 to 70 mph along the southeast Massachusetts coast. South winds were blowing more than 100 mph only 2000 feet above the ground in eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, but despite temperatures in the lower 60s there, a surface inversion was strong enough to prevent these very damaging winds from reaching the surface. Two to four inches of rain fell across the region, with the highest totals from central Rhode Island northwestward across northern Connecticut and portions of western and central Massachusetts.