Storm Prediction Center Issues Tornado Watch For Garden State As Well As Much Of Mid-Atlantic and Northeast

Good afternoon. Been keeping glued to the Weather Channel’s Weatherscan for the past hour or so after coming in from a long walk in this sweltering heat and humidity here in Northwest Middlesex County. Mercury has climbed into the lower 90s with humidity levels at or near 50 percent. Dew points are ranging from the upper 60s to low 70s.

Earlier this afternoon, the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma put much of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic including New Jersey under a Tornado Watch until 8:00 PM EDT. Dr. Greg Forbes, the Severe Weather Expert at the Weather Channel, increased his TORCON index for both the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast to a 4 out of 10.

Other areas in the Northeastern United States are under a Severe Thunderstorm Watch until 5:00 PM. This includes Upstate New York, much of Central Pennsylvania, Western Connecticut, Western Massachusetts, and the entire state of Vermont. Powerful thunderstorms have already rolled through parts of New England this morning. Vermont as well as upstate New York have already seen their fair share of rough weather recently with severe storms producing floods last week.

We have a cold front with some upper level energy from a low over Canada moving into our region. Temperatures behind the front are expected to be 10 to 15 degrees cooler on Thursday and Friday with much more comfortable humidity levels. We have showers and thunderstorms that are popping up in Eastern Pennsylvania and moving into Western New Jersey. Many of these storms developed just north of Interstate 80 and trickled down southward. The strongest cell lies between Interstate 80 and Interstate 78 in Pennsylvania.

The cold front doesn’t look that powerful on satellite until you get into Northeastern Pennsylvania and Northwestern New Jersey. Bright white cloud tops are showing up on the visible imagery. According to Dr. Forbes, there were southerly winds ahead of the front, and with the upper level winds coming out of the west as well as the high temperatures and dew points, we have the ingredients for severe weather. In the least, some thunderstorms could produce hail and damaging winds. Some could produce a tornado as well.