AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jon Porter breaks down the additional threats added by new storms that are expected to impact the Northeast with rain and flooding this week.
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00:00 This is going to be a fire hose of moisture directed right at the northeast and right at places
00:05 that have significant snowpack on the ground. That's why we're concerned about major flooding,
00:10 even life-threatening flooding in some spots. Now here's the problem, John. Let me go forward here.
00:16 You know, we're talking about the rain, but we have some two other problems here.
00:20 Let's first talk about the snowpack, which is growing in central Pennsylvania. But we're
00:25 talking with our regional flooding expert, Alex Zasnowski, and he likened what's happening tonight
00:31 to being a wet hair dryer because you have all the rain, you have the warmer air, and a lot of
00:38 this snow by tomorrow morning is going to be gone. That's right. This is moist air that's going to be
00:43 drawn to the north, and I think people are going to be surprised at how quickly the snowpack is
00:49 going to decrease here as the snow melts and that heavy rain falls on top of it. And that's why
00:55 the problem is really going to advance overnight tonight and happening at night when people have
00:59 less awareness about what's going on around them. Now, even in the areas that don't have snow,
01:03 John, we have another problem because before this snow had fallen, these areas got rain and it has
01:09 been soaking wet. I'm hearing from my Twitter followers on Long Island that some pumps have
01:15 been going on nonstop over the last 24 hours. That's how saturated the ground is. Right, and
01:21 even go back to the end of last year, we had several major rainstorms come up the coast,
01:25 so anywhere in green is above 100 percent of historical average precipitation, 200 to 300
01:33 percent in the dark greens, and look at where those dark greens are. All the way from Maine
01:37 through Massachusetts, the New York City metro, New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, down to DC,
01:42 and Baltimore. So this ground is super saturated, and when the snow melts in the inland,
01:47 and then also with the extreme rainfall on top of it, it's just got nowhere else to go. The
01:53 soil cannot take any more of it. All right, let's watch the future radar here, and what you're going
01:57 to see is what we call a fire hose of rain. There it is, John, tracking across West Virginia this
02:03 afternoon, and then watch its progression to the northeast tonight. Right, and it's all those
02:08 yellows and reds on the future radar. This is intense rain falling at the rate of one to two
02:13 inches per hour. Yeah, and then watch as it continues to go toward New York City, Philadelphia,
02:19 as we head toward the evening hours, John. Whenever you see that rain that sets up north,
02:24 south, and it moves in the same direction, we're talking about a fast and furious rain amount here
02:29 of an inch and a half to two inches. That could fall in less than eight, nine hours. It sure
02:34 could, and that's why we're so concerned about that flash flooding threat. All right, also,
02:39 if you're out on the roads tonight, wind gusts are going to be a problem as well,
02:42 but let's talk about this area, John, really quickly, what the big concern is. Look anywhere
02:48 from parts of northern New England through portions of Connecticut down through New York
02:54 and New Jersey down to Baltimore, Washington. Some people may have difficulty getting to work
02:58 tomorrow morning. Yeah, in fact, you know, strong gusty winds. We're going to see that 40 to 50
03:04 miles per hour, and this is the area, John, if you live in this area, you may not be going to
03:09 work tomorrow morning due to flooding and power outages.