April showers bring heavy wind, and even snow, to the Northeast

Through Sunday evening, no widespread outages were reported among customers of Metropolitan Edison and PPL in our region, according to spokespersons.

A spring nor’easter rumbled along the East Coast on Sunday and was expected to bring rain, heavy winds and even snow in some places as it strengthens into early today, punctuating a relatively dry stretch of weather for the Northeast.

The nor’easter was expected to dump 1 to 2 inches of rain Sunday night on the Lehigh Valley, with wind gusts of up to 35 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

Rain and heavy winds are expected to subside after 7 a.m. today, and total new rainfall may only total one-tenth of an inch through the end of the day.

The storm is atypical for April but not uncommon, said David Stark, a National Weather Service meteorologist in New York City, where 2½ to 3½ inches of rain are expected.

With the storm came a spate of disruptions. Pro baseball games were postponed in New York City and Washington, D.C. The space shuttle Enterprise’s scheduled arrival in New York City was pushed back. An Earth Day celebration at a park in Virginia Beach, Va., was canceled.

Through Sunday evening, no widespread outages were reported among customers of PPL Electric Utilities, according to Lissette Santana, a company spokeswoman.

“We had nothing out of the ordinary,” Santana said. “We were watching the weather closely on Friday to prepare, but we’ve had nothing in the way of major outages over the past couple days.”

Scott Surgeoner, a spokesman for Metropolitan Edison, likewise said Sunday evening no major outages had been reported among Met-Ed customers.

“If needed, we’ll move crews when the storm hits, if any damage is done,” Surgeoner said.

From Philadelphia north through New York City and into southern New England, up to 4 inches of rain could fall.

Some higher-elevation areas in the western parts of Pennsylvania and New York and in West Virginia and Ohio could even see snow. Forecasts called for 4 to 12 inches.
Flooding was possible in some areas, but precipitation in much of the Northeast is below normal for this time of year.

No flood warning had been issued for the Lehigh Valley or Warren or Hunterdon counties in New Jersey, though Hunterdon had been under the less serious flood watch, according to the National Weather Service.

“We’re down 7 or 8 inches,” said Charlie Foley, another weather service forecaster. “This won’t completely wipe out the deficit but it will certainly help.”

Even Lake Champlain on the Vermont-New York border, normally close to flood stage this time of year because of rain and snowmelt, is near a record low. Just a year ago, it approached its highest level on record.

The storm’s biggest threat is likely power outages caused by falling trees and limbs bringing down power lines, said meteorologist John Darnley.

Another unseasonable nor’easter last year just before Halloween dumped up to 2 feet of wet, heavy snow that snapped tree limbs and power lines, and knocked out power to more than 3 million customers in the Northeast.

In Connecticut, it broke a state record for the number of power company customers left in the dark by a single storm that had been set only two months earlier when the remnants of Hurricane Irene slammed the state as it barreled up the Eastern Seaboard.