Good evening everyone. We continue to watch the developing situation with Tropical Storm Hanna, which is located near the Bahamas with maximum sustained winds of 65 miles per hour. Hanna is expected to head northward, and perhaps increase in intensity to a Category One Hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale before making landfall somewhere along the Mid-Atlantic coast near the South Carolina/North Carolina border.

Hanna is expected to move rapidly up the East Coast as the jet stream becomes a big player with the storm. As a result, the rainfall amounts aren’t going to be as significant as with Fay and Gustav, but the Carolinas could get 6 inches of rain along with coastal tides and waves that may accompany high tide. After coming ashore in the Carolinas, the storm will join forces with an approaching cold front just like Fay did last weekend, and produce rainfall amounts between 3 to 5 inches with gusty winds. Long Island could see wind speeds of 50 miles per hour according to the latest info from the Weather Channel.

With the high rainfall amounts being forecasted for the Northeast, the New York City Metropolitan area, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland have been put under a Flood Watch by the National Weather Service for late Saturday afternoon into Saturday evening. Roads and poor drainage areas could become flood while small streams and creeks may swell to the point that they go over their banks.