Possibility of heavy rain. What is my latest track?
A third straight day of rain and thunderstorms is expected Saturday in the Lehigh Valley.
Meanwhile, meteorologists continue to track the monster hurricane that centered Saturday morning east-northeast of Puerto Rico and is expected to move north.
At Lehigh Valley International Airport outside Allentown, rain and thunderstorms are expected mainly after 1 p.m. Saturday, according to the weather service. Rain is most likely with a thunderstorm possible Saturday night, mainly before midnight, followed by a chance of the same continuing on Sunday and into the work week.
The Meteorological Service said some storms overnight and Saturday could bring heavy rain.
“The unstable, wet atmosphere will allow some strong to severe thunderstorms to develop again today with isolated damaging winds possible,” the weather service said in discussing Saturday’s forecast from the regional office in Mount Holly, New Jersey. “However, today’s main threat from thunderstorms may be locally heavy rainfall. The shape of the vertical winds indicates the possibility of training convection cells.”
“Scattered showers and thunderstorms are likely to continue into tonight. However, severe weather potential is expected to gradually diminish this evening with the loss of daytime heating. Low clouds and patchy fog are expected to form again overnight due to abundant low humidity.” .
Power outages caused by Thursday night’s storm totaled fewer than 1,000 late Saturday morning across Lehigh, Northampton and Warren counties, according to outage updates from the utility company. At approximately 10:45 a.m., PPL Utilities Inc. reported… reported 58 outages in Lehigh County and 288 outages in Northampton County; FirstEnergy Corp.’s Met-Ed reported six outages in Lehigh County and 427 outages in Northampton County; FirstEnergy subsidiary JCP&L reported 207 outages in Warren County, as well as 160 outages in Hunterdon County.
Hurricane Lee is expected to move over the Caribbean on Saturday north of the northern Leeward Islands, Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico this weekend and early next week, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Forecasters with the center said it was too early to say Saturday morning what kind of impacts, if any, Lee might have along the East Coast, Atlantic Canada or Bermuda.
“We are continuing to monitor the track forecast for Hurricane Lee,” the Weather Service forecast discussion for the region that includes New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania said Saturday morning. “Although the hurricane is expected to turn northward while remaining east of our area, there is still some uncertainty. As of now, the main impacts appear to be large surf and dangerous rip currents developing in our area over the next week.”
Stay up to date with National Weather Service advisories for our area at weather.gov/phi, and visit lehighvalleylive.com/weather to get your local forecast from AccuWeather, plus radar. Check airnow.gov for current air quality conditions in your area.
Current weather radar
Our press needs your support. Please sign up today lehighvalleylive.com.
Kurt Bresswein can be reached at kpresswein@lehighvalleylive.com.
