Severe Weather Developing Across Parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York

Severe Thunderstorm Watches Stretch From New York to South Carolina, and Into Alabama

08/18/24 4:08pm ET

Philadelphia Regional Radar 08/18/24 3:58pm ETPhoto byNWS

Good afternoon everyone. The stars are aligning in an unfortunate way for more severe weather this afternoon. In yesterday's forecast, we stated that today's round would be more widespread, and things are beginning to look that way.

As of this article, a broken but loosely knitted line of strong to severe storms stretch from the Catskills of New York, into northeast Pennsylvania, down near the Philadelphia area, and into the Delaware/New Jersey border by Cape May. Some of these storms have had a history of 60mph winds and nickel size hail, along with frequent lightning and torrential rain.

For this reason, the National Weather Service has issued a Severe Thunderstorm Watch until 10pm ET in parts of the Tri-State area down into the Mid-Atlantic. We are also watching for the prospect of severe weather down into the Southeast and back west into Alabama as that cold front slowly drags through the area.

Individual clusters of storms will eventually form into more broken lines like we right now in the Northeast. Even as isolated cells, these storms will be capable of locally severe weather and we've seen a few reports of this.

Severe Thunderstorm watches in parts of South Carolina are posted until 10pm ET, while areas of Georgia and Alabma remain until 11pn ET. These watches may also need to be extended and expanded as we wait and see how these storms materialize, where they go, and how long they survive before fizzling out.

Any of these areas impacted by heavy showers and thunderstorms, could see damaging winds, frequent lightning, torrential rain, large hail, and the possibility of a few tornadoes. Stay tuned to your local agencies for the latest watches and warnings.

National Weather Service - Severe Thunderstorm Watch - Philadelphia, PA