More than 2,000 flights were reportedly canceled Tuesday, with airports in New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., amid warnings of thunderstorm, tornadoes and flash floods.
Ground stops were issued at airports in New York City, D.C., Boston, and Baltimore, the ABC News reported.
Tornado watch
A watch was issued at 2:05 pm local time for parts of Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York, including in the Bronx, Queens and Manhattan, through 9 pm.
Around 32 million could be exposed, thewrote in a post on X.
In New Jersey, multiple tornado warnings were issued on Tuesday afternoon. At least three tornadoes have been reported so far in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Besidess, flash flooding posed a major threat to a large swath of the Interstate 95 corridor, from Philadelphia to New York City to Connecticut. Flooded roadways were already reported in the New York City suburbs of Bergen County, New Jersey, and Westchester County, New York.
The severe weather came days after a weekend storm blocked city streets and forced pedestrians to wade through thigh-high water in some areas.
Further west and south, severe thunderstorm watches were in effect from Missouri to Virginia, including the cities of Louisville, Kentucky, Charleston, West Virginia, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Flooding is also expected in Tennessee, the ABC News reported.
Tropical Storm Bertha
Tropical Storm Bertha strengthened in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday but was expected to weaken this week as it chugs closer to the U.S., potentially bringing coastal flooding and heavy rain from the Florida Panhandle to Louisiana. according to the Associated Press.
Bertha was forecast to make landfall Wednesday night somewhere in the coastal and lightly populated part of Louisiana southeast of New Orleans, said Michael Buchanan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Louisiana.
Those areas along the northern Gulf Coast were under a tropical storm warning through Wednesday and could see rain and flooding into Thursday morning, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said. New Orleans also was under a tropical storm warning.
The storm was about 120 miles (190 kilometers) southwest of Panama City, Florida, and 105 miles (170 kilometers) southeast of Mobile, Alabama, Tuesday evening. It was moving at 6 mph (9 kph) to the west with maximum sustained winds near 60 mph (95 kph), the hurricane center said. Gradual weakening was forecast Wednesday through Friday.
Flights impacted
According to FlightAware, LaGuardia Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport have had a combined 599 outbound flights canceled and 514 flights delayed on Tuesday as of 5:45 pm, Bloomberg reported.
Mamdani urges caution
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani urged New Yorkers to “exercise caution.”
“Go inside if there’s thunder, heavy rain, or strong winds,” he said on social media. “If you live in a basement apartment, know your exits and be ready to move to a higher floor if heavy rain begins,” he added.
Days after a weekend storm blocked city streets and forced pedestrians to wade through thigh-high water in some areas, the New York City area is forecast to see as much as four inches (10 centimeters) of rain on Tuesday, according to the NWS.
New York City dodged storms that developed north and west of the city earlier on Tuesday, but it began to see scattered rain in the afternoon, and the downpour will intensify through to 9 pm local time, said Nelson Vaz, a NWS meteorologist.
“We are seeing additional scattered showers and thunderstorms that are developing across eastern Pennsylvania all the way down to Philadelphia and across northwestern parts of New Jersey now,” Vaz said, adding those storms are making their way to New York City, and they could impact rush hour.
During peak rainfall, New York City and northeast New Jersey could see as much as 2.5 inches of rain per hour, more than double the levels where flooding often occurs, NWS meteorologist Jim Connolly said.
Flood watches are in effect for the region until 2 a.m. local time on Wednesday, and parts of northeastern New Jersey, southern Connecticut and Westchester County in New York are under flash flood warnings.
“Please exercise caution. Go inside if there’s thunder, heavy rain, or strong winds,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Monday in a post on X about Tuesday’s storms. “If you live in a basement apartment, know your exits and be ready to move to a higher floor if heavy rain begins.”
