New storms threaten the US this week

AccuWeather

AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jon Porter breaks down the threats facing the eastern U.S. this week.

Transcript

00:00 It's it's amazing how quickly we have to

00:02 shift gears because just a few days ago

00:04 we were talking about the heavy snow

00:06 threat here, but we kept on talking

00:08 about when we're done with this storm.

00:11 We've got to move on to what could be a

00:13 life threatening flash flooding event

00:15 coming across the Mid Atlantic in Northeast.

00:17 John, let's first talk about

00:19 the rain that's on the way.

00:21 Well, it's a key point here in the

00:23 rain is going to come fast and furious.

00:26 Look at it expand into the yellows

00:28 and dark greens right up along the I-95 corridor.

00:30 So a threat both from the excessive

00:32 rain that's going to be falling from

00:34 the sky plus snow melt from the

00:36 significant snow on the ground

00:38 outside the I-95 corridor.

00:39 The more and more we look at this,

00:42 the more this looks like a very

00:44 dangerous flash flooding situation

00:46 in parts of the Northeast.

00:47 You know, and if you live in New York City,

00:51 Central and Eastern Long Island,

00:52 Philadelphia, Washington DC,

00:53 you may say to yourself,

00:55 you know what we didn't get any

00:57 snow, but you have another problem.

01:00 How wet it's been.

01:02 The soil is so saturated.

01:03 Look at this map that shows the

01:05 rainfall over the last 30 days and

01:08 anywhere that's green or above and

01:09 getting into the dark greens here

01:11 above 100% of the historic average

01:14 long term average precipitation.

01:15 So you have these dark greens all

01:17 the way from Maine all the way back

01:20 to Massachusetts parts of upstate

01:21 New York, eastern Pennsylvania,

01:23 down to Washington, Baltimore.

01:24 So this area has very saturated

01:26 soil so there's nowhere else

01:28 for the water to go.

01:29 It can't take anymore.

01:30 The soil cannot take any more water,

01:32 so it's going to run off and result in

01:35 this serious life threatening flooding.

01:36 And you know, John,

01:37 let's take a look at the snow cover

01:39 right now as well because I've

01:41 been telling people this.

01:42 If you live, let's say South of the

01:44 New York State Thruway from the New

01:46 York State Thruway on South,

01:48 but the time you wake up on Wednesday

01:50 morning your snows gone. It is.

01:51 This is going to be this error is

01:53 going to have higher dew point.

01:55 This will be lots of moisture in the air.

01:58 It's snow eating air that's going

01:59 to be working on this snow cover,

02:01 and that's why we're so concerned

02:03 about the combination of heavy

02:05 rain and this snow melt.

02:06 It's going to be.

02:07 You're going to be surprised by how

02:09 quickly the snow is going to melt.

02:11 You know, John,

02:12 in this whole area certainly

02:14 is susceptible to flooding,

02:15 but here's the area that

02:17 we've really zoned in on.

02:18 Why do you explain what makes this

02:20 different, let's say,

02:21 then farther areas to the West?

02:23 OK, this is a very,

02:25 this is the area that we're most

02:27 concerned about the nasty flooding

02:29 here because of the fact that here

02:31 we're going to be dealing with.

02:33 The combination of the snow melt,

02:35 especially on the Western

02:36 periphery of this area from

02:37 Northeastern Pennsylvania up into

02:39 Western Massachusetts and Southern

02:40 New Hampshire. Plus,

02:41 this is also where there's going to

02:43 be the risk for several inches of

02:45 rainfall as that moist air is drawn

02:47 way up the eastern seaboard by

02:49 this strong storm system.

02:50 The other problem is that Bernie.

02:52 This is going to be happening at night.

02:55 Remember,

02:55 you've heard me talk about this before here.

02:58 Flooding issues at night are especially

03:00 dangerous because the water can quickly

03:02 rise. Look for flash flooding first,

03:03 then stream and Creek flooding,

03:05 and it will also translate to

03:07 river flooding here as well.

03:08 Really quickly, John.

03:09 The other concern here is this rain is

03:12 going to be accompanied by 40 to 50

03:14 mile per hour wind gusts,

03:15 specially along the eastern seaboard.

03:17 And we have some special messages

03:19 for you for Wednesday morning.

03:21 If you live in this area highlighted,

03:23 you may have difficulty getting to

03:25 work in school on Wednesday morning.

03:27 This is a big deal in terms of not

03:29 only just the flooding issues and

03:31 remember turn around if you encounter.

03:34 Any flooding on roadways.

03:35 So many lives are lost due to

03:37 issues with flooding on roadways,

03:39 and then in addition to that,

03:40 we're going to power outage issues.

03:42 Lots of trees coming down because

03:44 of the wind and the combination

03:46 of that saturated soil.

03:47 This looks like a major story.

03:49 Stay very close to this year here

03:51 on the Accuweather network in the

03:53 Accuweather app over the coming days.

03:55 Chief Meteorologist John Porter.

03:56 John thanks again for joining us.

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