Days of rain to soak parts of Northeast
As a storm moves slowly in and stalls, it will set up what end up being days of rain for some locations that can spoil outdoor plans and slow travel, but may also relieve drought and wildfire concerns at the same time.
Ezra Nanes, mayor of State College, Pennsylvania, joined AccuWeather to discuss how the town is responding to a derecho that claimed a young man’s life and left thousands without electricity.
As an atmospheric traffic jam sets up across the United States, some areas in the Northeast may have to deal with clouds and rainy episodes for multiple days starting this weekend and into next week, AccuWeather meteorologists say.
The pattern can derail outdoor plans, delay spring planting and construction projects and create the appearance of a March or late-October weather condition.
Due to cloud cover and moisture, the weather traffic jam will prevent frosts at night over the weekend, ease areas of drought and should end any wildfire risk for the spring season.
The rain will come in two main parts. One will be focused from Thursday night to Saturday, mainly from the Appalachians on the west. The second part will develop on Sunday and continue into the middle of next week, focusing on the mid-Atlantic coastal areas to the central Appalachians. New England could get in on that part or be sheltered by a wedge of dry air from eastern Canada.
A storm and a front will approach the Northeast states from the Midwest on Friday and Saturday.
This setup will produce rounds of showers and heavier thunderstorms, some of which can be severe with damaging wind gusts, hail and torrential downpours. This includes cities such as Pittsburgh; Cleveland; Charleston, West Virginia; Buffalo, New York; and State College, Pennsylvania.
While the risk of tornadoes is minimal, there is always a risk of a couple of brief tornadoes striking populated areas in any severe thunderstorm.
The slow progression of this storm and front will hold back most of the showers and thunderstorms from reaching much of the Interstate 95 corridor into Saturday morning. However, during the afternoon and night, some of this activity will grind toward the mid-Atlantic and southern New England coasts.
Some of the storms may be severe during this time from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia, New York City and Boston.
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How wet the pattern evolves from Sunday to next week will depend on the position of a storm forecast to form at the jet stream level of the atmosphere.
At this time, the storm may form in a position to create a plume of moisture that extends across the mid-Atlantic region and perhaps into eastern New York and southwestern New England next week.
Such a setup can release many inches of rain over two to four days. Streams that have been running and ponds that have been drying up will fill with water.
While flash flooding is a concern, there will be periods of slick travel on the roads, and some airline delays due to low clouds accompanying the rain at the airports.
There can also be robust thunderstorms at the onset of the pattern or embedded within the rounds of rain.
Depending on the wind direction, some Atlantic barrier island communities or perhaps low-lying areas along the Chesapeake and Delaware bays could experience above-normal tides with coastal flooding.
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