The remnants of what was once Tropical Storm Fred are moving through portions of the Mid Atlantic today, threatening the region with heavy rain and severe thunderstorms; floods and tornadoes are possible.
What’s left of Fred will move through northeastern Ohio, northern Pennsylvania, and upstate New York today while continuing a gradual weakening trend. Nonetheless, a threat for tornadoes and damaging, isolated severe thunderstorm gusts will develop the next few hours, before weakening overnight tonight.
While the system will weaken, storms within it could still pack a punch. While not everyone will see a severe storm or tornado, they are possible, especially between 11 am and 4 pm today. Beyond isolated tornadoes, severe thunderstorms could produce damaging wind gusts and very heavy downpours. Hail isn’t likely from these storms at this time.
Beyond the severe weather threat, a threat of flooding also exists, prompting the National Weather Service to issue Flash Flood Watches for portions of Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, and Vermont. Here, there could be widespread 2-4″ of rain, with 4-6″ possible near north central Pennsylvania and adjacent locations of Upstate New York over the next 48 hours.
While Fred’s remnants will move out of the northeast this week, eyes will turn to Henri. Henri is currently a tropical storm south of Bermuda, but it is forecast to intensify into a hurricane as it moves up and just off the U.S. East Coast. It is too early to tell whether or not Henri will make landfall on the U.S. East coast.
