A fairly lousy and potentially high-impact weather day lies ahead for Sunday as a strengthening nor’easter moves along the coast. Wind and rain will begin to pick up early Sunday morning, with gusts near 45 MPH at times (and potentially even higher on bridges and overpasses). Rainfall could turn out to be quite significant, especially within any thunderstorms that can fire; before it’s over, many of us could see 3-5″ of rain with even higher amounts in some spots. Flooding is increasingly a concern as a result, especially with the potential for an 8′ water level around the 11:17am high tide coinciding with continued heavy rain. Finally, if surface-based instability can develop, a severe thunderstorm or two with locally damaging wind gusts and maybe even a tornado could be possible. All this to say that Sunday’s a good “stay inside” day.

A nor’easter will make this second-to-last shopping weekend before Christmas a little tricky, with heavy rain, gusty winds, and coastal flooding all coming into play, especially on Sunday.

Well, first off, this is not going to be the best weekend of weather ever, especially as we get into Sunday as a now fairly well-discussed nor’easter heads up the coast. So, if you can get some time outside on Friday, do that. It’ll be a chilly start, with lows in the mid-30s and perhaps even a tick or two close to freezing further inland. Temperatures will then warm to around 60° under mostly sunny skies.

There will be a risk for minor coastal flooding with high tide around 9:28am. Water levels should peak just around 7′, and this should be enough to cause a few problems on Lockwood as well as around Fishburne and Hagood. Widespread issues are not expected, though.