Nor'easter batters U.S. Northeast, Canada with wind speeds found in Category 1 hurricane

© David Filipov

Surf reaches Plymouth Long Beach seawall at high tide.

Conditions will improve across the Northeast on Friday as this week's nor'easter shifts away from the region. While some rain and wind is still expected over northern New England and Nova Scotia on Friday, the worst of the storm has passed after flooding rain and howling winds impacted the region from Tuesday night through Thursday.

The storm has left behind a mess for cleanup crews with thousands of people still without power and a plethora of trees felled across the region. Boston was one of the larger cities that was hit by the powerful storm, receiving over 3 inches of rain and being lashed by winds that gusted as high as 54 mph.

The observatory sitting on top of Mount Washington, New Hampshire, recorded a peak wind gust of 84 mph Wednesday evening, wind speeds that can be found in a Category 1 hurricane.

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Most of the stronger wind gusts were found near the region's coast and over the higher elevations with heavy rain being a more widespread danger.

Over 6 inches of rain feel near Beverly, Massachusetts, through Thursday afternoon, making it one of the wettest spots across the entire Northeast.

Beverly, Milton, Brockton and Gardner, Massachusetts, were some locations that received over 5 inches of rain, according to the National Weather Service.

Several sinkholes opened up as a result of the heavy rain, one of which on Route 146 north in Sutton which lead to excessive backups long the highway.

Power outages were also widespread with more than 44,000 electric customers being were without power for a time in the Northeast on Thursday morning.

This number has since declined as crews have had the opportunity to fix power lines and transformers.