Active Weather
The Weather Prediction Center places southern New England inside a slight risk of excessive rainfall today, the second of its four levels. A slight risk means scattered flash flooding is possible where the heaviest cells line up, not that widespread flooding is expected.
The setup is a strong system interacting with a warm front. The Weather Prediction Center describes scattered to widespread showers and thunderstorms with up to about 3 inches of rain possible in localized spots. Rain that falls that fast on a small area is the kind that fills underpasses and low road crossings while the next street over stays dry.
Northern New England sits outside the named risk area. Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont have no excessive rainfall risk drawn over them today.
The Storm Prediction Center's slight risk for severe thunderstorms runs from the eastern Ohio Valley to the Mid-Atlantic coastline, which is south and west of all six states. No severe storm risk area is drawn over New England today.
If you are driving today in southern Connecticut, Rhode Island, or Massachusetts, the practical action is the one the National Weather Service builds its Turn Around, Don't Drown campaign around: do not drive into water across a road, because you cannot see what the road underneath is doing.
Infrastructure
The National Interagency Fire Center's September 1 situation report lists no large uncontained fires in the six states. Nationally the preparedness level is at 5, its highest step, with 84 large uncontained fires. That number is driven by the West and does not reflect conditions here.
No grid emergencies, water system disruptions, or transportation closures are reported across the region.
Public Health
No public health advisories specific to New England were confirmed this run. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Health Alert Network archive could not be read without JavaScript, so this brief makes no claim about national health advisories in either direction.
Watch Item
September is the month New England's hurricane exposure is highest, and this year the basin is unusually still. As of this morning the National Hurricane Center's two day and seven day tropical outlooks both show no disturbances anywhere in the Atlantic. Edouard, which came ashore in Louisiana on September 1, has had its final advisory issued and is now a rainfall story over Texas rather than a coastal one.
A week with no named system anywhere in the basin is the week to do the work that is difficult once a storm is forecast. Coastal households in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts have the clearest use for it: confirm your flood insurance status, because new policies generally carry a waiting period before they take effect, and photograph the interior of your home for your own records.
The other seasonal turn is heating. Fuel oil and propane deliveries are easier to schedule in September than in November, and a furnace service call booked now happens on your calendar rather than on the first cold night.
Longer term, the United States Drought Monitor released on September 2, using data through August 25, put 56.61 percent of the lower 48 states in drought. New England is not among the areas the Monitor flagged for degradation this period, but it is the slow variable worth watching into autumn.
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