Heavy Rain Expected Across the Northeast on Tuesday

New York City was once again facing the possibility of heavy rain and flash flooding on Tuesday, the latest in a string of stormy days this month that have flooded roads, brought down trees and sent commuters scrambling for their umbrellas.

Weather forecasters said between two and five inches of rain could fall throughout the day as an intense system hits the region, and some places faced the possibility of two to three inches an hour.

They zeroed in on an area that includes New York, Newark and parts of the Hudson Valley as being at the day’s highest risk of “excessive rainfall,” which sets up the possibility of severe flash flooding, especially in urban areas where water cannot drain away quickly.

“Bottom line, the ingredients are there for a potentially significant rainfall event,” forecasters with the National Weather Service office in New York wrote Monday evening.

The storms are likely to kick off by late morning and last through the day, the Weather Service said. A flood watch was in effect across much of the region through Wednesday morning.

A larger area of the Northeast, from Delaware through upstate New York and Vermont, was also facing the possibility of heavy rain on Tuesday, and forecasters warned it was possible that the storms could shift and deliver the heaviest rain as far south as Philadelphia. Forecasters there said the highest risk was across southeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey.

Tuesday’s storms could also deliver wind gusts up to 70 miles per hour — near the strength of a hurricane’s — and even an isolated tornado or two. The Weather Service said the highest tornado risk was across northeast New Jersey and the New York area.

Last week, on July 21, at least four tornadoes were confirmed in New Jersey as a storm system put New York City under its first tornado watch in years.

Surveyors with the Weather Service rated three of them a one on the five-point Enhanced Fujita scale for tornado strength and said the strongest, in Morris County, had winds estimated at 110 miles per hour. The tornadoes uprooted trees and brought down limbs and power lines.