A flood watch has been issued for most of the tri-state beginning Thursday morning and continuing through Saturday as flooding, thunderstorms and isolated tornadoes are expected to drench already water-logged areas.
The rain is expected to start late Thursday morning, meaning the commute to work should be OK with just a few showers around. But the rain will pick up by lunchtime and stick around until the nighttime hours.
Scattered thunderstorms are expected to pop up beginning in the early afternoon on Thursday, intensifying into more potentially violent storms with strong winds and cloud-to-ground lightning by the evening hours. The threat carries over into Friday morning, but dissipates in the early part of the day.
Severe weather is possible, mainly south of the city, particularly in central and southern New Jersey, forecasters say. There, the region could see damaging winds, more flooding rains and a risk for isolated tornadoes.
The city and surrounding suburbs, already saturated with up to 7 inches of rain from the downpours Friday and Monday, primarily face the threat of more flooding.
The saturated tri-state area is already about 5 inches of rainfall over the average for this time of year, and meteorologists say any heavy downpours will likely cause immediate flooding, especially in low-lying areas, because the ground can't hold any more water.
Central Park has already gotten 8.96 inches of rain this month, making it one of the wettest on record. The record for June rainfall was set in 2003, with 10.27 inches of rain. That record could be broken by Thursday night, just 12 days into the month.
Storms are expected to move out during the day Friday, making way for a beautiful weekend with temperatures in the mid-to-high 70s amid sunny skies. But because runoff will continue to feed into rivers and other bodies of water after the rain has stopped, the flood watch continues until Saturday when the sun should be shining.
