A week after Hurricane Irene caused record flooding across a large portion of the Middle Atlantic and Northeast states, the remains of Tropical Storm Lee are delivering the second round of a one-two punch of moisture. A daylong-deluge of training rainstorms that stretched from the Carolinas to the Canadian border Wednesday pushed small streams over their banks and caused rivers to rise, according to AccuWeather.
Portions of Eastern Pennsylvania have experienced about 350 percent of their normal rainfall in the past 30 days and nearly 75 percent more than normal over the last 90 days, according to the National Weather Service’s Middle Atlantic River Forecast Center.
But that’s not the last of the Northeast’s worries; meteorologists are saying now that the tropics have come alive with tropical storms Nate and Maria.
After Irene and Lee, Nate and Maria
The National Hurricane Center Wednesday named both storms to go along with Hurricane Katia, which is poised to stay off the coast and end up as a tropical storm nearing northern Great Britain.
Even though the National Hurricane Center predicts Tropical Storm Nate will remain in the Gulf for days before making landfall as a hurricane in Mexico, the leftover moisture may ride up the coast. Tropical Storm Maria was forecast to drift westward across the Atlantic before heading north and parallel to the coast. However, Maria will be in the area of the Southeast United States Monday, so residents on the mainland should monitor her progress, reports the Weather Channel.
However, not everyone agrees the Middle Atlantic and Northeast states will miss out on their effects.
Back-to-Back Rainmakers
AccuWeather’s Hurricane and Tropical Weather Coordinator Dan Kottlowski says there are indications of risk for back-to-back rainmakers along the East Coast during the middle of September.
The National Weather Service Agrees
The National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center predicts a likelihood that the East Coast will experience wetter-than-average conditions from Sept. 13-17 and again from Sept. 15-21.
Very Active 2011 Hurricane Season
Even if moisture from Nate and Maria miss the U.S. mainland, there is no reason for residents to let down their guard during a very active 2011 hurricane season, warns the Weather Channel.
In its state of the hurricane season report, the Weather Channel said 2011 has experienced nearly triple the amount of storms that come in an average year through Sept. 7. Also, 2011 has had double the amount of major hurricanes found in an average year.