WeatherFanatics: Severe storm, flash flood threat to target mid-Atlantic Thursday

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Severe storm, flash flood threat to target mid-Atlantic Thursday

By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist

June 22,2016; 1:30AM,EDT

The potential for severe thunderstorms and the risk of flash flooding will focus on the mid-Atlantic states on Thursday.
As is often the case when thunderstorms affect the densely-populated Northeast, travel disruptions will occur.
The storms forecast for the mid-Atlantic on Thursday will follow lower humidity levels on Wednesday in the region.
"The greatest threat from the storms on Thursday will be for pockets of flash flooding," according to AccuWeather Storm Warning Meteorologist Alex Avalos.

"However, the strongest storms could bring localized damaging wind gusts," Avalos said.
A small number of the storms could produce hail.
While the risk of tornadoes is low on Thursday, a severe thunderstorm can produce a brief tornado on occasion.
"The storms on Thursday in parts of the mid-Atlantic have the potential to be very bit as violent as the storms in the Midwest on Wednesday," according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dave Dombek.
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The pending severe weather on Thursday will be part of the same weather system targeting the Midwest on Wednesday.
Cities in the mid-Atlantic at greatest risk for locally severe storms on Thursday include Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Virginia. Severe storms may also extend farther west to Charleston, West Virginia; Roanoke, Virginia; and Lexington, Kentucky.
While people spending time outdoors will have to be alert for changing weather conditions, motorists should be on the lookout for flooded roadways and sudden low visibility.
As storms approach major airports, airline delays are likely.
Most of the severe storms are likely to pass south of New England and northeastern New York state. Rain and storms could avoid northern New England entirely. The New York City area and parts of southern New England, including Boston, Providence, Rhode Island, and Hartford, Connecticut, could be grazed by gusty storms with heavy rainfall.
Many areas of the Northeast could stand a thorough soaking as a significant part of the region has developed abnormally dry conditions with isolated pockets of moderate drought in recent weeks.
Even where rain is needed, too much rain could fall at too fast of a pace for the ground to absorb and result in flash flooding.

David Colantuono ·

Works at Unemployed

This is good and bad news. The bad news is the potential for severe thunderstorms that could produce damaging winds, dangerous lightning, and hail of various sizes (with isolated tornadoes not totally out of the question). The good news is that these storms may also produce beneficial rainfall. As mentioned in the article, many areas of the Northeast could stand a thorough soaking. The grass around here is a mixture of green and almost a light brown color because of how dry it's been. We need rain.