The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch Monday from Maryland to New Jersey lasting until 7 p.m.
The possible tornadoes would accompany severe thunderstorms characterized by high winds, said the NWS out of Philadelphia/Mount Holly. A separate wind advisory was also in effect until 2 a.m. Tuesday, predicting south winds of 25 mph to 35 mph south winds with gusts as high as 50 mph, potentially interfering with travel.
“Winds this strong can make driving difficult, especially for high-profile vehicles. Use extra caution,” the federal agency said. “Secure outdoor objects.”
The wind advisory covered central, northern, northwest and southern New Jersey, as well as east central, northeast and southeast Pennsylvania, the NWS said. Parts of central, northern and southern Delaware and northeast Maryland were also in the windy line of fire.
“A few tornadoes, including the possibility of an especially intense tornado, cannot be ruled out, especially from near the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., metro areas through Virginia and into North Carolina,” AccuWeather chief meteorologist Jon Porter said on the private weather service’s website.
In weather considered highly unusual for this time of year, and rare at any time for this part of the country, the usual tug-of-war between departing winter and incoming spring was more marked than usual, NWS meteorologist Joe Pollina told the Daily News.
“March is a transition month between winter and spring, so you typically do see more active weather,” Pollina said. “So there’s that battleground there. But yeah, it’s not totally normal to see a tornado watch.”
Hail was also invited to the party, as the NWS Mount Holly flagged the possibility of “isolated hail up to quarter size” in its public advisory.
The severe weather was a storm system that began in the Midwest on Sunday and moved east into the Appalachian Mountains early Monday and then to the East Coast to wreak “severe thunderstorms with widespread damaging winds and several tornadoes,” Accuweather meteorologists said.
Elsewhere in the country there were blizzard conditions in parts of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, torrential rains with flooding in Hawaii, and an early bout of extreme heat in the Southwest. In all, more than 200 million people were under threat from some variety of dangerous weather on Monday, Accuweather said.
With News Wire Services