Tuesday's Storms Bring Flooding, Record Rain to East

By Matt Alto, Meteorologist

October 4, 2012; 4:48AM,EDT

 

 

 

 

The same storm system which brought flash floods to parts of Texas and the Deep South this past weekend once again unleashed flooding rain along parts the East Coast on Tuesday.
A sea of moisture moving northward ahead of a cold front nearing the East Coast was responsible for the heavy and drenching storms from Florida and the Carolinas to the mid-Atlantic and southern New England on Tuesday. Several locations in this corridor picked up between a healthy 1-2 inches of rainfall from these storms.
The heaviest rain fell along the I-95 corridor between Washington, D.C., and New York. The heaviest rain fell in areas north and west of Washington D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia. Some locations in and around Baltimore picked up nearly 3.0 inches of rain according to radar estimates.
The heavy rainfall caused traveling headaches to some as the water quickly began to pond on roadways.
Numerous reports of rapidly rising waters came flooding in during the late morning and early afternoon around the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Md., areas.
Flash flooding first occurred in the Gaithersburg and Germantown, Md., areas during the midday hours on Tuesday resulting in the closure of several streets due to high waters. Flooding also led to road closures in Culpepper, Va.
The flash flooding expanded to multiple areas north and west of Washington, D.C., and Baltimore on Tuesday afternoon as the heavy bands of showers continued to track to the north and east.
In addition to the flooding rain, several cities along the East Coast broke daily rainfall records.
Dulles International Airport in Washington D.C., picked up a total of 2.26 inches of rain on Tuesday. This smashed the old record of 1.18 inches set back in 1973.
Farther north in Allentown, Pa., 1.86 inches of rain fell throughout the course of the day. This broke the old record for Oct. 2nd of 1.07 inches of rain, which was set in 1929.
Finally, Asheville, N.C., reported a record 1.87 inches of rain, breaking the old record of 1.65 inches for the date set in 1988.