NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) — New Yorkers face a soggy Tuesday afternoon commute as thunderstorms lumber into the region, bringing the threat of torrential rains, flooding and flight disruptions.
The New York City Emergency Management Department advised residents Tuesday to allow extra time to get around with the city at risk for excessive rainfall that could close roads and flood underpasses.
“New Yorkers should prepare now for showers and thunderstorms that could cause dangerous flash flooding,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in the statement released by the agency. “Even a short period of rainfall can quickly flood streets, basements, and low-lying areas.”
The storm threat has already disrupted air travel, with 709 trips across New York’s three major airports cancelled as of 8 a.m. local time, according to FlightAware.
New York has a moderate risk of excessive rainfall as slow-moving thunderstorms move into the area, mainly in the afternoon and evening, according to the US Weather Prediction Center.
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Heavy rain arriving in multiple rounds are forecast to drop as much as 3 inches (8 centimeters), with isolated storms bringing as much as 2.5 inches in an hour, the US National Weather Service said. A flood watch has been posted from western Massachusetts to northeast Maryland, including New York City, through Wednesday.
This is the same storm system that raked the Midwest Monday, touching off at least five tornadoes along with 175 instances of damaging winds and 51 episodes of hail, according to the US Storm Prediction Center. More than 500,000 people lost power across mainly Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois Monday as the thunderstorms pushed through, according to PowerOutage.com.
The weather contributed to 1,745 flights into and around the US being cancelled Monday, mainly from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, FlightAware said.
New York City has been on edge for heavy flooding since the remnants of Hurricane Ida pushed through in 2021, bringing deadly downpours across the region.