A wintry mix is expected to create traffic delays on I-95 Wednesday and could cause power outages and flooding through the northeastern and southeastern U.S.
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00:00Joining me right now is AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter.
00:03You know, John, I have the water vapor loop on here, a couple of things, and then we're
00:07going to look at the moisture content.
00:09You know, you can see that little, what I call a little S-band here from the Ohio back
00:14in toward the Florida panhandle.
00:16That's a sign when you see that of a strengthening storm, even though, you know, we talked about
00:21an S, how about a little V-naught signature at the end of that water vapor loop?
00:26Yeah, this whole presentation here in the eastern part of the United States, we have
00:30deep tropical moisture surging northward and an intensifying jet stream disturbance, which
00:36means that this whole setup is going to amplify heavy rain, gusty and damaging winds on the
00:42way, and some big flooding concerns in some spots.
00:44We're talking with Allie Reed this morning in Philadelphia, and she was like, my goodness,
00:48Bernie, is it humid out there.
00:50Well, when you take a look at this product, the moisture content, when we look through
00:54the entire depth of the atmosphere, trace the moisture.
00:58It begins in the Caribbean.
01:00This is a true atmospheric river here.
01:02We talk about those oftentimes on the west coast of the United States.
01:05They happen in the east coast, too, and look at how deep the moisture in the oranges and
01:10yellows here up in New England, but trace it all the way back through the Carolinas,
01:14Florida, all the way into the Caribbean, some 2,000 miles, a deep feed of tropical moisture,
01:22and that's why we're so concerned about the heavy rainfall and flooding concerns.
01:25And that's why we do think this will be a bomb cyclo, because you can't get tropical
01:30moisture and you can't get Arctic air meeting.
01:32When that happens, the atmosphere doesn't like that.
01:35That's why this storm is really going to bomb out.
01:38Let's talk about the travel delays today, John, because there's going to be a plethora
01:42of them as we go through the morning and afternoon.
01:44Yeah, the only way I can describe this, I wish I had better news, this is a complete
01:48mess in terms of travel, both on the ground, which is going to be very difficult, on the
01:53streets and highways, and also at the airports, and whenever we're talking about big delays
01:57at these major airports along the I-95 corridor, Washington, Dulles, Baltimore, all the New
02:03York City airports, Newark, up into Boston, whenever we have those kinds of big delays
02:08and cancellations here in the east, that can spread throughout the country, so you're going
02:13to need to pack your patience at the airports today.
02:17Yeah, look at that rain band, and you'll notice it's oriented, John, almost south to north,
02:21or let's say southwest to northeast, and it's moving in that same direction, so once the
02:27rain gets to your location, it's going to stick around.
02:30It sure is, and look at that as we're going through the evening commute.
02:33There's a heavy line of thunderstorms and gusty, damaging winds, and very heavy rainfall
02:39moving through New York City down toward Philadelphia and blasting east toward Boston and portions
02:45of southern New England with flooding rain concerns and power outage issues, and then
02:49we go to snow in the interior.
02:51Yeah, take a look at that.
02:52You know what, John, and here's the thing.
02:54The areas that are being shown hit by the lake effect snow and future radar are areas
02:58that have already been inundated.
03:00Cities like Erie, Pennsylvania have already picked up more snow so far this year than
03:05they did all of last year.
03:07Let's talk about the rain, John, because this can cause some flooding.
03:11Sure can.
03:12Widespread two to four inches and AccuWeather local storm max of eight.
03:15Big concern here from New York City into southern New England where that rain is going to come
03:19too fast, too furious.
03:21There can be significant flooding, especially near creeks and streams, and also don't let
03:25your guard down here in northern New England.
03:27That's parts of Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine.
03:30There's still snow on the ground there.
03:31That snow is going to melt fast.
03:34This air mass, as you talked about, is moist.
03:36It's going to eat that snow quickly, and that's going to add to the flooding problems there.
03:41Some of which can be very significant.
03:43The winds are going to really howl, especially from New York City, Boston toward Portland.
03:47We are projecting that there's going to be power outages with gusts past 60 miles per
03:52hour.
03:53Jersey Shore toward Boston later today.
03:56All right, AccuWeather chief meteorologist Jonathan Porter.
03:59John, thanks for breaking it down for us here this morning.