Heavy storms reach East Coast as a Nor’easter heads toward New England

(BOSTON) — Heavy storms are now reaching the East Coast as a Nor’easter heads toward New England ahead of the holiday travel period for Memorial Day weekend.

As a low-pressure system from the Mid-Atlantic moves out to sea, it will become a Nor’easter and move up the New England coast.

This late season Nor’easter will bring cold windswept heavy rain to New England, including Boston, on Thursday — with wind gusts up to 50 mph and the potential for minor coastal flooding.

The soaking rain will likely come to an end for Boston on Friday morning, but pockets of showers remain possible Friday afternoon into Saturday as the system continues north.

With scattered showers remaining in New England on Saturday, it won’t be completely dry again until Sunday as rainfall totals of 1 to 3 inches are expected through much of the Northeast Wednesday through Saturday.

Storms have also now reached the East Coast and even though most are not expected to be severe, a few scattered severe storms have been reported early Wednesday morning in the Southeast.

Washington, D.C. will have rain showers by 8 a.m. while thunderstorms are expected further south of Richmond and Norfolk in Virginia.

Elsewhere, Philadelphia is expecting a rainy morning and New York City will have occasional showers through the afternoon, but a washout is not expected today.

Pittsburgh and southwestern Pennsylvania are under a flood watch through Wednesday night because 1 to 3 inches of rain is possible which may create river, stream flooding and other low-lying flood-prone areas to become saturated as urban areas may also experience flooding from excessive rainfall.

On Wednesday afternoon, a few strong storms are also possible in eastern North Carolina and, overnight, strong storms are possible in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas.

Meanwhile, in the last 48 hours alone, at least 31 tornadoes have been reported across nine states from Oklahoma to Alabama, with 11 tornadoes striking Alabama, Illinois, Tennessee and Arkansas alone on Tuesday.

Baseball-sized hail was reported in Tennessee and Alabama on Tuesday night as wind gusts stronger than 70 mph were recorded in Tennessee overnight.