Friday night storm to bring heavy rain, winds with chance of flooding and isolated tornado – NBC New York

As May draws to a close, another round of wet weather draws closer to the tri-state. Steady rain and isolated downpours will make a mess this weekend, bringing the threat for severe weather to parts of our area.

After dinnertime Friday, the approaching line of strong storms makes its way to our area, with the worst of the storms arriving after midnight and exiting after sunrise on Saturday.

The primary concern coming with our nocturnal system is the flooding. We are expecting some torrential rain to come along with these storms, producing rainfall rates up to 1 to 2 inches an hour in the most robust downpours.

By Saturday morning, parts of our area will have picked up between 1 and 3+ inches of rain. This much rain over a relatively short period of time, about 6-10 hours, is enough to cause rivers and creeks to rise out of their banks, resulting in minor to moderate flooding. A flood watch has been issued for northern and central New Jersey as well as the lower Hudson Valley. If you live in these areas, especially on or near a river, expect to wake up to road closures Saturday morning.

While the greatest flood concern is concentrated just to the west of the city, our entire region, save for the eastern end of long island, is at risk of seeing some localized, minor flooding.

Beyond the heavy rain, these storms bring with them the threat for damaging wind gusts, hail, and even an isolated tornado or two is possible. Unlike the flood threat, the severe chance is concentrated in our southern-most counties, especially Monmouth and Ocean County. With the system approaching from the southwest, these are the areas that will first be exposed to the line of storms. As the storms continue to push across the tri-state, they will start to weaken, thus diminishing the threat of seeing anything severe in our counties farther north.