As residents living along the United States East Coast, Middle Atlantic and New England states recover from record flooding caused by Hurricane Irene, according to the Associated Press, two more flood-making storms are headed their way, forecasters say.
Slow-moving Tropical Storm Lee began assaulting the New Orleans area on Saturday in what could be weeklong deluge of rain of nearly 20 inches in some areas, according to AccuWeather.com meteorologist Matt Alto. That’s because Lee could take several days to clear the New Orleans area, dropping drenching rains in the process.
However, Tropical Storm Lee won’t be done just yet after his assault on New Orleans, according to the National Hurricane Center. Lee will continue its slow migration along a stalled out cold front. Lee will ride the front to the Northeast spreading heavy, tropical rains across the Ohio River Valley. By Thursday, Lee will be positioned along the Ohio and West Virginia borders. He’ll reach the North East and New England States by Friday or Saturday.
In a worse-case scenario, flooding conditions could reoccur across the North East, according to AccuWeather meteorologist Bill Deger.
But that’s just part of the story.
Hurricane Katya has eyes on the same bit of global real estate, the National Hurricane Center says. Hurricane Katya is forecast to be become a major hurricane before weakening slightly as she approaches the East Coast. Katya will become a Category 2 storm positioned off the South Carolina coast on Thursday. Katya’s projected path was forecast to take the storm in the direction of the Virginia and Maryland areas of the coast on Friday.
Usually, cold fronts will wage battle on approaching hurricanes, knocking them back out to sea. But this week’s stalled cold front along the Appalachian Mountains may lack the brute force needed to keep Hurricane Katya at bay and out over the ocean waters.
It’s likely that Hurricane Katya will come too close to the coast to make a turn out to sea without impacting a large portion of the mainland. Katya could come close enough to spread flooding rain inland and over the Middle Atlantic and New England states just like Irene did.
The majority of the computer models used by the Weather Channel don’t forecast a turn out to sea for Hurricane Katya. Even so, Katya could mimic Hurricane Irene by not turning to the north until she reaches the mainland, spreading high wind, punishing rain and cascading floodwaters across a large part of Northeast.
There is hope that Hurricane Katya could provide a repeat performance of Hurricane Earl in 2010. Earl appeared headed for the East Coast before exiting back out along the Atlantic Ocean within a few hundred miles of the Eastern Seaboard.