Strong Wind — Northwest Middlesex County, Massachusetts

2020-12-25 · Northwest Middlesex County, Massachusetts

Event narrative

Winds generally were gusting to 40 to 50 mph. In Pepperell at 448 PM EST, a tree was down on Route 119 at Shirley Street. In Shirley, a large tree was down on Clark Road.

Wider weather episode

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.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 928700. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.