After the West Coast got walloped by record-setting rainfall and dangerous mudslides—with more heavy rain in store today—70 million Americans in the Eastern United States are now also at risk for severe weather.
The threat zone Monday stretches from the southern Appalachians to New York City, according to the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center.
Damaging winds will be the main threat, with some isolated threats of large hail or tornadoes.
Flash flooding is another concern. From Massachusetts to New Jersey, flash flood watches will be in effect from Monday evening through Tuesday afternoon.
The rate of rainfall could top one inch per hour at times, with several total inches of rainfall expected in some areas, the weather service said.
Already, the storm has triggered at least 13 reports of tornadoes Sunday in Missouri, Illinois, and Kansas, according to the weather service.
Farther west, Californians are still grappling with torrential rainfall that shattered records.
On Sunday, downtown San Francisco had “by far the wettest Oct day ever,” the weather service’s Bay Area office wrote on Twitter Monday.
With 4.02 inches of rain, Sunday also marked the “4th Wettest day EVER in SF with records back to Gold Rush,” the weather service office said.
Sacramento broke its 24-hour rainfall record, with 5.44 inches of rain reported downtown between 1 a.m. Sunday and 1 a.m. Monday, the National Weather Service Sacramento office wrote on Twitter.
And the severe weather isn’t over for California, “as the heaviest rains shift southward into portions of Central to Southern California” on Monday, the weather service’s Storm Prediction Center said.
“This will pose a threat of flash flooding and debris flow problems across recent burn scar areas.”
California just suffered its worst summer drought on record, along with a spate of wildfires.
But there’s a bit of good news with the recent rain. The Dixie fire—the second largest fire in California history—is now 100 percent contained after burning 963,309 acres, local officials said.
