June 18, 2013 Storm Updates

Occasional updates will be posted below on the severe weather event affecting the region today and tonight. Live updates are being posted on Twitter and will continue to be posted throughout the day.

Twitter updates archive

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Final storm rain totals in NYC:

Central Park - 0.20"
JFK Airport - 0.20"
LaGuardia - 0.20"

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Blog Updates: (Regional radar from the National Weather Service)

5:15 PM: Heavy thunderstorms continue to train over west Bergen, SE Passaic, central Morris, south Sussex and north Warren counties in New Jersey along the I-80 corridor, having produced flash flooding with over 1-2" of rain observed in this axis. A flash flood warning issued by the NWS is in effect for this axis through 8:45 PM. This line of storms is slowly sinking south, approaching Hudson, Essex, Morris and Warren counties within the next 1-2 hours. This line is preventing heavy rain from developing to the south, where the I-78 corridor into New York City have seen little rain so far. Occasional rain/thunder will continue in this axis through the evening before ending, with at least 1/4 to locally 1/2 inch of rain expected except for under the aforementioned axis of heavy rain, where up to an additional inch, possibly locally higher, of rain is expected with a continued risk of flash flooding through the evening commute.

Further northeast, a line of heavy thunderstorms is developing over southern CT just north of New Haven. This line is capable of producing heavy rain, gusty winds and flash flooding with up to 1" of rain possible, with the line expected to slowly drop south towards coastal CT.

4:10 PM: Over the last hour, scattered strong storms continued over NE NJ and SE NY, with the most significant storm over eastern Bergen county earlier this afternoon, having produced localized 1-2" rain totals with flash flooding, hail, and gusty winds. Similar conditions were observed in NW Passaic county and central Orange county.

Currently, scattered heavy storms continue over parts of western Bergen, NW Passaic, and central Rockland counties. Meanwhile, the severe thunderstorms over central NJ earlier this afternoon have moved offshore, and widespread moderate to heavy rain with occasional rumbles of thunder is filling in to the north, over northern NJ and NYC. This part of the storm was not modeled well, as some of the shorter range models failed to depict the central NJ storms earlier this afternoon, and the steady Mid Atlantic rainfall was modeled to stay south of the area. The rain and thunder will spread into NYC and Long Island slowly within the next 1-2 hours, with scattered strong storms slowly dropping southeast into southern CT. Occasional periods of rain and thunder are expected to continue through the evening hours, then gradually ending, with at least another 1/4 inch, locally up to/over 1/2 inch, of additional rain expected.

2:25 PM: Scattered storms are currently popping up across parts of the area; today's storms will be very slow moving, with areas of flash flooding likely under the heavier cells. Currently there is a strong cell located in Demarest, NJ drifting NE, producing heavy rainfall, gusty winds and hail; this cell has produced up to 1" of rain so far in NE NJ. Another similar cell is located just south of Warwick, NY and is also slowly drifting to the NE. Additional thunderstorms will continue to develop and expand into the area in the next few hours, and will also be capable of heavy rain and localized flooding.