Norfolk, Virginia, recorded its wettest November day on record with 6.3 inches of rain on Friday, as the storm that flooded Georgia and Tennessee spread up the East Coast in the final act of a powerful, week long cross country system. The rain, which had already delivered devastating flooding across parts of the Southwest and the southern Appalachians, soaked the Interstate 95 corridor on Friday, with places in Massachusetts and Virginia tallying more than 6 inches of rain, and it ended a more than two week stretch of dry, sunny weather across the Northeast.
Why it matters
The storm began in the southern Appalachians, where thunderstorms parked over the North Georgia mountains on Wednesday night and dumped as much as 10 inches of rain in a few hours. The National Weather Service in Atlanta said 10.28 inches fell across the watershed in six hours and 11.19 inches in 12 hours, a rate that is a 1 in 1,000 year rainfall for 12 hours, with only a 0.1 percent chance of happening in any given year. The Toccoa River crested at 18.05 feet at 7 a.m. on Thursday, passing the previous record of 17.75 feet set in February 1990, and the flooding forced at least 117 rescues across Georgia and Tennessee, killing one person and shutting down a water treatment plant.
By Friday, the same storm was spreading flooding up the Eastern Seaboard. In Norfolk, Virginia, 4 to 6 inches of rain flooded roadways and stranded cars, and the city recorded its wettest November day on record. Downpours triggered flash flood warnings early Friday across Monmouth County, New Jersey, and South Jersey during the morning rush, and the National Weather Service received reports of widespread flash flooding across parts of New Bedford, Massachusetts. A Level 2 of 4 flooding risk covered southern New England, including Boston and Providence, and flood alerts remained in effect across southeast Massachusetts and Rhode Island into Saturday morning.
What happens next
The storm also caused a major air travel headache. The storms prompted ground delays and ground stops at major Northeast airports, including Newark International, LaGuardia, John F. Kennedy International and Boston Logan International, and the disruption came at the end of a week in which the system had already impacted more than 35 states. Southern New England and Downeast Maine faced another round of heavy rain through Saturday afternoon, after storms caused flash flooding across parts of the East Coast on Friday, and the rain was the first significant rainfall in weeks for parts of the Northeast coast.
What happens next is a quieter week, according to the forecast. Most of the country stays dry under a large high, while storms focus on the Pacific Northwest and South Texas, where Gulf moisture brings heavy rain Sunday into Monday, with areal averages of 2 to 3 inches and local totals of 4 to 8 inches. The Storm Prediction Center forecasts no severe thunderstorms anywhere in the country on Saturday or Sunday. For the towns in Georgia and Tennessee, the forecast offered one piece of good news: no rain is expected in the affected area over the next week, giving them time to dry out and rebuild.
