Flood Watches Issued Ahead of Beryl's Arrival in New England

The remnants of Hurricane Beryl are continuing to move northeast through the central United States. The storm will move to the north of New England, lifting a warm front across the region. Areas near this warm front will see the heaviest rainfall with multiple inches possible. Areas to the south and north of the front will see lesser rain. Areas to the south will also see the potential for severe thunderstorms in the system's warm sector.

Flood watches have been issued for a large portion of northern New England, including most of Vermont, New Hampshire and into western Maine. These areas will see the warm front focus a fire hose of moisture into them. The atmosphere is already moisture-rich, and the remnants of a tropical system will inject that much more into the region, allowing for serious rainfall rates.

When all is said and done, a wide swath of northern New England will likely have seen 1-3" of rain. Amounts will drop off quite steeply heading farther south as showers/storms will be much more scattered. There will also likely be some thunderstorm development within this strip. Areas that see a thunderstorm could see 3-5" of rain, but these totals will likely be more localized rather than widespread.

As expected, the Weather Prediction Center has upgraded northern and central Vermont, the White Mountains and the New Hampshire Lakes Region to the "moderate" risk (level 3 of 4) for flash flooding. This indicates the possibility for numerous flash floods with some serious flash floods possible. The time frame for the worst of the flash flood potential will be Wednesday evening through Thursday morning. This isn't expected to be a major river flooding event.

While flooding is by and far the biggest impact from this system, the threat for severe thunderstorms has increased for areas near and south of the warm front. This threat will be greatest from early-afternoon into the night, but the threat will begin to diminish after sunset. Filtered sunshine in southern Vermont and western New Hampshire and Massachusetts will allow the atmosphere to destabilize while the warm front lifts through in the early afternoon.

Thunderstorms are possible across New England on Wednesday afternoon, they will be more focused across northern New England. Southern New England will likely see little by way of storminess tomorrow, but any stray storm that fires could become stronger.

We'll have a full "impacts, timing" article on Wednesday morning.