Federal forecasters said the Norse Easter hurricane next week off the coast of New England is likely to produce “treachery even from an impossible travel situation” as it develops into a possible bomb cyclone.
Bryce Williams, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the low-pressure system was concentrated on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on Saturday afternoon and was causing northeast winds of 40 to 60 miles per hour, affecting higher coastal gusts along the coast.
After the rains in the Mid-Atlantic, the system was expected to produce more than a foot of snow in Central Massachusetts, forecasters said. Boston can see about half, Williams said.
“It’s heavy, wet snow,” he said. “Trees and power lines could come down.”
In Massachusetts, 14,824 utility customers were without power on Saturday afternoon; The figure was 12,210 in New Hampshire.
A “bomb cyclone” condition, or bombogenesis, indicates a rapidly strengthening hurricane that sees an atmospheric pressure drop of 24 millibars in 24 hours, Williams said, “there is a definite possibility.”
The weather service said in a forecast discussion on Saturday that parts of New England would be drenched in blinding snow or travel was not recommended.
“The combination of heavy snowfall rates and strong winds will also lead to treacherous impossible travel conditions, gloomy illustrations and the possibility of damage to trees and the possibility of lightning.”
Residents should stay away from travel if possible, the Maine Emergency Management Agency said in a statement.
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“We urge citizens to travel only if necessary in the worst of storms,” agency director Pete Rogers said in a statement. “With the temperature hovering around cooling, road conditions are expected to remain extremely weak.”
Predictors said lower temperatures in Boston would also reach signs of cooling. Winter storm warnings extend from central Massachusetts to northern Maine.
A total of two feet of contact could be seen at locations in parts of New Hampshire and North Maine, the weather service said.
High surf and coastal erosion were also possible off the coast of New England, federal forecasters said.
Williams said the active snow outside the Boston area will clear as sunrise on Sunday.
