Coastal Mass. bracing for wind event from winter storm

QUINCY, Mass. — It did not feel balmy along Quincy Shore Drive Sunday afternoon but, at 25 degrees, it did not feel bitter, either -- and that was in stark contrast to the rest of the weekend when single-digits prevailed. A few hardy souls even came down to the beach, where the last tide lay in a sheet of frozen saline -- its momentum seized, suddenly, by the latest blast from the Arctic.

Monday, forecasters predict the Boston area will see temperatures about 20 degrees warmer -- but it will come with a price. Eastern Massachusetts will be on the balmy side of a storm system churning up from the South, which will mean rain and, especially, high winds. By mid-day Sunday, the National Weather Service issued High Wind Warnings for coastal Massachusetts, with some areas -- including Boston and Quincy -- possibly seeing gusts to 65 miles per hour.

That’s why Siddhesh Shende got an e-mail from National Grid this morning. He’s lived in Quincy for eight years.

“They’re deploying extra staff, they’re trying to monitor power lines,” Shende said. Still, he’s not worried, as his residence is serviced by subterranean power lines. Shende is happy, however, the Boston area is missing the snow. “We had a good 8 or 9 inches just last week,” he said.

Gervase Spurlin of the South End is also not unhappy to hear the big storm would be wetter than anything else. He was concerned about salt getting on his car if snow fell. As for the power possibly going out?

“I’ve got a bunch of candles so if we lose power my main concern would be the water being cold for showers,” Spurlin said.

Spurlin’s companion, Divya Satishchandra, was concerned about losing the ability to power up electronic devices and use her computer. But she, too, wasn’t going to miss the snow.

“You know, I think in the city the snow’s kind of a hassle just moving around on foot all the time,” Satishchandra said. “So I think it will be okay without snow.”

Are storms without snow something Massachusetts might have to get used to with global warming?

Monday’s storm is, after all, pulling up warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico -- something climate change organizations say is a pattern more likely to happen in the future as wetter systems drop more precipitation on New England.

The answer is -- not necessarily. Had this storm taken a different track -- one more offshore -- most of the state would have been on its colder side and, depending on how close it then came, the story tonight would have been a heavy run on bread and milk.

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