Coastal Flooding A Major Concern Along N.J. Coast

By Brian Edwards, Meteorologist

November 3,2012; 2:59PM,EDT

Another storm set to ride up the East Coast could lead to major coastal flooding along the already battered New Jersey coastline.
With residents along the mid-Atlantic coast trying to clean up the wreckage and damage caused by Hurricane Sandy earlier this week, Mother Nature is about to cause even more problems along the coast.
AccuWeather.com meteorologists are concerned that a storm system riding up the East Coast could lead to a devastating water rise along the New Jersey coast on Tuesday Night into Wednesday.
A low pressure system is expected to emerge off the southeastern coast of the U.S. on Tuesday. This feature will then lift northward along the East Coast Tuesday night into Wednesday, rapidly strengthening in the process. This will in turn increase the strength of the winds along the mid-Atlantic coast and lead to a prolonged period of northeasterly, onshore winds for the New Jersey coastline.
Right now, if the track holds and the storm rides up the Eastern Seaboard and into southern New England, residents along the New Jersey coast can expect a water rise of 2-4 feet, which is on top of the normal tide cycles.
That means during high tide, Wednesday afternoon, water levels could reach upwards of 8-9 feet. While not as severe as during Hurricane Sandy, a rise like this could once again flood coastal communities with no dunes to protect it.
In addition, wind gusts to 40 mph along with bands of heavier rain can develop all the way back into eastern Pennsylvania, including in the Philadelphia area.
The heaviest rain would fall during the day Wednesday and could cause localized flooding of small streams and low lying areas. Thankfully, with the short duration of this storm, inland flooding isn't as big of a concern this time around.
However, the strong winds could toss debris leftover from Sandy and potentially cause additional power outages.
Stay tuned to AccuWeather.com over the next few days as we fine tune the details associated with this storm.