Flash Flood Watch for Rowan County will be in effect beginning Friday

Heavy rain will move to the northeast, but it will remain cloudy with periodic showers.

Like during superstorm Sandy three years ago, it’s “a good thing that we are getting really advanced notice from the National Weather Service to start taking this seriously and make the necessary preparations”, said Miller, a water resources engineer with Princeton Hydro LLC.

“We’re going to be throwing a lot more aircraft resources at this problem over the next few days”, he said. You should monitor later forecasts and be prepared to take action should flash flood warnings be issued. The waters have done damage in the Carolinas and southwest Virginia, and could cause power outages and close roads in the Mid-Atlantic.

The weather service said Burlington, Vermont, had 2.04 inches of rain on Tuesday, a record for daily rainfall for the day. During this time…heavy rain could fall over a short period of time on saturated soils…which could lead to flash flooding. Such circumstances may prompt an extension of the advisory into Friday afternoon.

“The official track for Tropical Storm Joaquin now places the storm off of the North Carolina coast through Sunday night”, Paul said.

“After the many lessons learned from Sandy, we have made significant improvements to substations, the electric transmission and distribution system, the outage management system and our customer service technology, as well as our internal communications and emergency planning and execution”, said John O’Connell, vice president of transmission and distribution for PSEG Long Island.

Rainfall of 5 inches or more in similar storms has been associated with an increased risk of landslides, the National Weather Service said.

A flood warning is in effect for Hampshire, Hampden, Franklin, Worcester, Middlesex, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Plymouth counties until 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

The rain is accompanied by winds gusting to 25 miles per hour.

The only direct impacts from the storm in North Carolina will be rough surf, risky rip currents, and beach erosion along the coast.

Meanwhile, an upper level low centered along the Mississippi Valley will continue bringing heavy rain across the Southeast and southern/central Appalachians Wednesday.

According to Local Yokel Weather (www.localyokelweather.com), the are is anticipated to receive anywhere from 5-10 inches of rain through Sunday.

The Finger Lakes Local Weather Center is reporting that additional rain amounts between a quarter and half of an inch are possible today.

Comparatively, total rainfall over the summer was 14.42 inches at the Albany worldwide Airport in June, July and August.

Breezy conditions with occasional wind gusts between 20 and 40mph are possible from Friday through the weekend.