America’s northeast may want to start thinking about building an ark. Severe storms brought rain, lightning and damaging winds to the Northeast on Friday evening. The wind gusts were up to 65 mph in parts of central and western New Jersey, and reports of over 5 inches of rain fell in Chatham, New York, overnight.
In New York City, lightning filled the city skyline and even may have started a fired in Saratoga Springs City Hall.
And on Saturday, strong thunderstorms moved through parts of the Northeast again.
A new flash flood watch was posted for much of New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, northern Delaware and extreme northeast Maryland due to heavy rain. This watch was for storms expected Saturday afternoon and evening that dumped heavy rainfall on already-saturated ground.
Storms were expected to follow the I-95 corridor from Washington, D.C., to Boston during the early evening hours on Saturday. The storms are expected to produce gusty winds, lightning and heavy rain. Flash flooding is a concern, particularly in parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where there has been a massive amount of rain the last several weeks.
On Sunday, there will be some lingering showers holding on to parts of east. Locally, 1 to 2 inches of rain is expected in the heavier downpours across the eastern U.S. from strong thunderstorms through Sunday night.
The new storm system developing in the central U.S. on Saturday night may last into the beginning of next week. Strong storms will move across the Plains during the early morning hours on Sunday. The storm activity will become more widespread Sunday night across nearly the entire central U.S.
The main concern with these storms will be localized flash flooding that occurs from slow-moving thunderstorms. The strong storms are expected to bring gusty winds as well.
Get out your rain boots and umbrella!