 thumb|300px|a powerful nor'easter in march 2014 a norâeaster (also northeaster; see below) is a macro-scale storm along the upper east coast of the united states and atlantic canada; it gets its name from the direction the wind is coming in from the storm. the wind on land, therefore, will generally blow in a southwest direction. the usage of the term in north america comes from the wind associated with many different types of storms, some of which can form in the north atlantic ocean and some of which form as far south as the gulf of mexico. the term is most often used in the coastal areas of new england. a norâeaster is a low pressure area that often passes just off the new england and southeast canada atlantic coastline. winds in the left-forward quadrant rotate onto land from the northeast. the precipitation pattern is similar to that of other extratropical storms. norâeasters can cause severe coastal flooding, coastal erosion, hurricane force winds or blizzard conditions; these conditions are usually accompanied with very heavy rain or snow, depending on when the storm occurs. nor'easters thrive on the converging air masses; that is, the polar cold air mass and the warmer oceanic air over the gulf stream. ==etymology and usage== thumb|right|237px|compass card (1607) the term nor'easter came to american english by way of british english. according to the oxford english dictionary, the first recorded use in the english language of the term "nore" (ânorthâ) in association with the points of the compass and wind direction was by dekker in 1612: "how blowes the winde syr?" "wynde! is nore-nore-west." similar uses occurred in 1688 (â¦ nore and nore-west â¦) and in 1718 (â¦ nore-west or nore-nore-west.) these recorded uses are predated by use of the term "noreast", first recorded as used by davis in 1594 (noreast by north raiseth a degree in sayling 24 leagues.) and shown, for instance, on a compass card published in 1607. thus, the manner of pronouncing from memory the 32 points of the compass, known in maritime training as "boxing the compass", is described by anstedansted. a dictionary of sea terms, brown son & fer
Blizzards_in_Canada Blizzards_in_the_United_States Extratropical_cyclones Nor\'easters Northeastern_United_States Weather_events_in_Canada