Ahead of Memorial Day weekend, a rare May nor’easter dumped more than five inches of rain in some areas, and knocked out power for more than half the Island. High winds and seas disrupted travel plans ahead of one of the busiest weekends of the year.
There were also reports of minor coastal flooding around Edgartown Harbor, Oak Bluffs Harbor, and, per usual, Five Corners in Tisbury, where multiple cars had to be towed after traveling through the floods.
“It was a pretty good soaking,” said Joe Dellicarpini, meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “It was a decent late-season nor’easter, but it was not like it was unprecedented.”
Reached Friday morning, Oak Bluffs Harbormaster Emily DeBettencourt said that she was still assessing the damage. She noted a few boats that had not been attached to moorings were likely damaged. She said that at high tide on Thursday, waves were crashing over the bulkhead where the Island Queen ferry docks, soaking the new roundabout there. She said that she had seen the water breach the bulkhead there only once before, during the October 2021 nor’easter.
There were widespread outages on the Island on Thursday evening, but only temporarily. Eversource spokesperson Sarah Paduano told The Times around 11,500 customers lost power because of the storm, although a large number of them had their power “restored within 10 minutes.” Paduano said the “vast majority” of the outages were from issues with an onshore electric transmission line that runs between Bourne and Falmouth, and “feeds the Vineyard,” which was struck by lightning.
Travelers trapped on the Vineyard because of the storm huddled into the Steamship Authority’s Vineyard Haven terminal on Thursday, some sitting on the floors of the building, hoping the wind would subside enough for a boat to sail. Starting with the 12:20 pm trip from Vineyard Haven, the ferry line canceled 22 trips on Thursday due to the storm. Exactly how many people were impacted is uncertain.
“It’s unfortunately difficult to get a count of how many people had been booked on a trip that didn’t run, because many of those customers have been moved or canceled,” said Sean Driscoll, Steamship Authority communications director. “It’s easily hundreds of cars, however, if you assume every trip was full.”
On Friday morning at the Woods Hole Steamship terminal, traffic backed up deep into Woods Hole Road with travelers trying to get aboard a ferry.
Lingering effects of the storm also diverted at least six trips on Friday from Oak Bluffs, a less protected port, to Vineyard Haven. And there were delays to ferries throughout Friday morning.
The National Weather Service said that nor’easters with strong Northeast winds can happen at any time of the year, but are “most frequent and violent between September and April.”
The agency’s data shows the Vineyard experienced powerful wind gusts, with a high of 51 mph reported in Vineyard Haven. The heaviest of the rain fell west of the airport. There was a report of 5.85 inches in Vineyard Haven, and 5.39 in West Tisbury. In Edgartown, the National Weather Service reported 2.82 inches of rain.
Not rare at all, we get a May nor’easter 2 out of 3 years if not more.
Once again your weather data is being derived from home hobby weather stations. The only certified wind speed instrument is at the airport, but they don’t measure rain. My professional weather station, though not regularly certified, measured 4.06 inches of rain. Of course rain amounts are site specific.
nothing to see here– it rains all the time– This has nothing to do with that silly left wing “hoax” that you can’t mention in Florida, and all references to it have been scrubbed by the most transparent regi– I mean administration, from the National weather agencies. So no worries– It even seems like we won’t get a single tropical storm (in the Atlantic basin) before the start of hurricane season this year.
Here is a replay of Vineyard Haven 5 Corners May 22, 2025 Nor’Easter flood https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tvT5B473TU
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