Tropical Storm Debby may still be wreaking havoc in the Southeast, but tens of millions of people in the Northeast, including New York City and Philadelphia, face the threat of significant flooding as the deadly storm’s tropical moisture spreads up the U.S. East Coast.
Debby made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region early Monday as a Category 1 hurricane, killing at least five people, including children, in Florida and Georgia.
The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm watch for more than 15 million people who live and work in parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York due to the risk of severe thunderstorms Tuesday afternoon.
This includes people living in Philadelphia and Scranton in Pennsylvania, and Trenton in New Jersey.
New York City is not currently under a severe thunderstorm watch.
The main threats from severe thunderstorms include hurricane-force winds and hail the size of ping-pong balls, but tornadoes are also a possibility.
A severe thunderstorm watch remains in effect until 11pm ET.
Millions affected by severe weather, flooding in Northeast
The FOX Forecast Center said a cold front will move across the Northeast from the Ohio Valley to southern New England on Tuesday.
That will then pull deep tropical moisture from Debby northward.
The combination of the two will cause havoc across the East Coast with severe thunderstorms and heavy rain.
Severe weather is possible Tuesday from Indiana to Connecticut.
However, NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center (SPC) said areas from the Ohio Valley into New England were at high risk for severe weather.
NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center (SPC) has placed most of Pennsylvania, including Allentown, Reading and Harrisburg, at Level 3 out of 5 on its five-point severe thunderstorm danger scale.
Elsewhere, a Level 2 out of 5 threat exists from parts of Indiana through northern Ohio, Pennsylvania including Philadelphia and the New York City tri-state area.
This severe weather threat comes with the threat of moisture from Tropical Storm Debby pushing hundreds of miles north and causing heavy rain, significantly increasing the risk of flash flooding across the Northeast and New England.
NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center (WPC) placed areas of the Northeast, including New York City, Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in a Level 3 out of 4 flood risk area on Tuesday.
The National Weather Service issued flood watches for millions of people in the Northeast through at least Wednesday because of expected heavy rain and thunderstorms.
This includes northern Delaware, southeastern Pennsylvania including Philadelphia, most of New Jersey, New York City and southern Connecticut.
Several inches of rain is possible along the East Coast through Sunday, with the heaviest rainfall occurring near and along the Interstate 95 corridor from the Mid-Atlantic into the Northeast.
Widespread rainfall totals of 5 to 8 inches are expected, with locally higher amounts possible in areas where the heaviest rain bands form.
