Rain Could Cause Flooding in New York City Today

Forecasters have warned that areas prone to flash flooding across the New York Metro Area are likely to see such flooding on Friday, with steady rain and occasional downpours expected through the morning rush hour and for much of the day.

On Friday morning, the National Weather Service issued a flash-flood warning that included all of Staten Island, Elizabeth and Jersey City, N.J., western Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan, in effect until 10:30 a.m. A flood watch, which means that more flooding conditions could develop, was in effect for much of the metro area until Friday evening.

For the rest of the day, a moderate risk of excessive rainfall is forecast for an area stretching from just west of Newark, N.J., to East Hampton, N.Y., and north toward Danbury, Conn.

Nearly three inches of rain had likely fallen in parts of Queens, King and Nassau Counties overnight, and another one to three inches was expected. “Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly,” warned National Weather Service forecasters in New York City.

The culprit is a coastal low-pressure system that is expected to pull moist air off the Atlantic Ocean before moving just south of Long Island into the weekend.

The storm system is also expected to produce minor coastal flooding of up to one and a half feet and also beach erosion, with the New York and New Jersey harbor, Jamaica Bay, western Great South Bay, and coastal Westchester and Fairfield Counties the most vulnerable.