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Tropical Storm Kyle formed in the Atlantic, while a system farther north took aim at Washington, New York and other cities along the U.S. East Coast, forecasters said.High winds and drenching rain are in store for residents from the Carolinas to Boston starting today, and flooding is possible for the Atlantic shore and cities including Baltimore and Philadelphia, according to AccuWeather. A coastal flood advisory is in effect until midnight local time for New York City and Long Island."The strongest winds have now started to move northward,'' said Carrie McCabe, a meteorologist with AccuWeather in State College, Pennsylvania."New York will start to feel the effects late tonight.''The less-powerful system was centered 100 miles (161 kilometers) southeast of the North Carolina-South Carolina border at about 2 p.m. local time and was moving west-northwest at about 10 mph, the National Hurricane Center said in the latest advisory on its Web site.Tropical Storm Kyle was 645 miles south-southwest of Bermuda, moving north at about 8 mph and packing maximum sustained winds of 45 mph, the NHC said. Computer models show the system heading west of Bermuda and then off the coast of New England by the weekend.Hurricane Risk
Kyle, the 11th named tropical system of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season, may strengthen into a hurricane in the next couple of days, according to the NHC.Whether the more northerly system becomes a tropical or subtropical cyclone,strong winds, coastal flooding, high surf and dangerous rip currents will continue along portions of the southeastern and mid-Atlantic U.S. coastal regions during the next couple of days,'' the hurricane center said.The system will have"nor'easter-type conditions,'' with winds of as much as 40 mph and gusts as high as 50 mph, and may produce as much as 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain, McCabe said.The system that became Kyle this week drenched Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the Turks and Caicos."That system will quickly move up off of the East Coast,'' McCabe said. "Whether or not the two systems combine, whether or not they do something separate, from northern New Jersey to southern New England it's going to be a rainy windy day especially during the day on Saturday.''
New York Bound
There is a 100 percent chance that heavy rain will soak the New York City area tonight and tomorrow, according to the National Weather Service. The chance of rain falls to 80 percent on Saturday, Sept. 27, and to 30 percent the following day.The storms were delaying flights up and down the East Coast today, with arrivals and departures at New York's LaGuardia Airport held up an average of 1 hour and 37 minutes, according to the Federal Aviation Administration's Web site.Flights heading to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York were delayed almost an hour, while planes departing Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport were leaving as much as 30 minutes late, the FAA said.
Baseball Turmoil
"Crosswinds are the issue,'' said Tim Wagner, a spokesman for American Airlines, the world's largest carrier, in an e- mail."We have not canceled flights, and the system outside of the Northeast is not greatly affected.''SeaStreak, which runs a ferry service between Manhattan and the New Jersey coast, canceled four runs between 10:15 p.m. local time and midnight in advance of the storm.The storms also threaten to throw the final weekend of the Major League Baseball season into turmoil, by causing the postponement of games whose outcome will decide which teams go onto postseason play scheduled to start next week.Tropical cyclones are organized weather systems that garner their energy from the sea. A tropical depression is a cyclone with sustained winds as strong as 38 mph. At 39 mph, systems are named and designated tropical storms, and at 74 mph, they become hurricanes.The two Atlantic systems are the first to develop since Hurricane Ike slammed into Texas on Sept. 13, devastating Galveston and leaving more than a million customers without power.The hurricane season runs from June 1 through Nov. 30. Five of this season's named storms became hurricanes.
By Chris Dolmetsch
As in the days of Noah...
