5 Things You Need to Know Today: Tuesday, Oct. 30

Here are five pieces of information designed to get your Tuesday off to a much better start than your Monday and to help make you the smartest person enjoying a second day off from school.

1. Your 3-Day Local Weather Forecast: According to the NWS, showers are likely. Patchy fog before 7am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a high near 68. Southeast wind 10 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 39 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.

• Tonight Showers likely, mainly before midnight. Patchy fog after 9pm. Otherwise, cloudy, with a low around 56. East wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible.
• Wednesday A chance of showers, mainly before 1pm. Patchy fog before 11am. Otherwise, cloudy, with a high near 63. Southeast wind 6 to 9 mph becoming south in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
• Wednesday Night Mostly cloudy, with a low around 45. Southwest wind around 6 mph.
• Thursday A slight chance of showers after 11am. Cloudy, with a high near 57. South wind 6 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
• Thursday Night A chance of showers, mainly before 5am. Cloudy, with a low around 43. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

2. Sandy By The Numbers, Part 1: 2082. As of 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday, National Grid's website reported that 2,082 customers in Tewksbury were without power—approximately 16.7 percent of the National Grid customers in town. The biggest problem is in North Tewksbury near the Andover line.

3. Reader Comment of the Day: "Private Account: The PD is busy with minute-to-minute downed trees with live wires embedded, flooding, and more. National Grid will get to you, sooner or later. Be patient. The way it works is if restoring one situation returns power to 350 homes, they'll do that first, before restoring power to the area where only 12 homes are out. You KNOW they will get to you as they are working every minute throughout the duration of this hurricane. It's going to be a "warm" night, so we're not terribly in danger of freezing. Just hang in there and think about all the people with totally flooded houses, etc." Reader Janellen27, commenting on the story,

4. Sandy By The Numbers, Part 2: 2. As in, today is the second day that Tewksbury Public Schools will be closed due to the impact of Hurricane Sandy. All extra-curriculars, such as sporting events, are also cancelled for today.

5. Sandy By The Numbers, Part 3: 61. A Boston TV station reported that Lawrence experienced a wind gust of 61 mph on Monday. It's not known if the gusts got that strong in Tuesday but the wind was certain strong enough to rip some trees out of the ground. Check out photos and video clips from of the damage and feel free to upload your own to the gallery.

And Don't Forget: Check out road conditions, repair work, traffic and even gas prices at the Tewksbury Patch Commute Page.