Story highlights
The rainfall records for December 9 fell at several New York measuring spots
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo warns potential drivers to check conditions first
The West Coast braces for another storm on Wednesday that will bring a lot of rain
A blustery nor’easter that made travel throughout the Northeast absolutely miserable Tuesday is going to stick around for a few more days.
And the West Coast will get drenched, too.
Record rain reports poured in from the New York metropolitan area with nearly 3 inches falling. At John F. Kennedy International Airport, 2.95 inches fell, the most on this date. Coupled with high winds – including one gust of 47 mph – the precipitation delayed air travel for hours. At LaGuardia Airport, where 2.65 inches fell, the delays at one point reached four hours.
Heavy rain tapered off Tuesday evening, but some areas were still flooded, the New York office of the National Weather Service said. Flood warnings for three counties just north of Manhattan were issued.
“I urge all drivers to exercise caution and check conditions before getting on the road,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, according to CNN affiliate WCBS. “We are proactively deploying as many resources as necessary to assist communities in the storm’s path to prepare for and manage whatever Mother Nature brings.”
Earlier, the pooling water caused issues for parents.
“We’re stuck at home until this dies down,” a woman in Amityville told CNN affiliate News 12 Long Island. “I’m not even sure if I’ll be able to get my kids at school.”
And there were problems for some commuters on foot.
“It’s pretty bad. I’m actually trying to get home so I don’t know how I’m going to get over there, I’m going to have to walk through it again,” Sean O’Malley told WCBS of his trek through the water-logged streets of Sea Bright, New Jersey, on the Atlantic Ocean shore. “It happens every year, it’s not a surprise.”
About 20 million people are under winter storm warnings and advisories in the Northeast. Snow will stay inland with over a foot of snow from northern New York to Maine. Some areas could get up to 12 inches of snow by Thursday.
According to the flight tracking website FlightAware.com, more than 2,600 flights departing from and/or landing in the United States were delayed Tuesday and 1,200 were canceled.
Headaches in other areas
It was also pouring in Washington state. “1 storm down, 2 more to go,” the headline on the website of CNN affiliate KOMO in Seattle read. The station reported there was going to be a break in the rain between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.
The next set of storms will bring buckets of rain to Oregon and California, too.
The highest elevations of northern California might get 10 inches of rain, forecasters said.
San Francisco could see 2 to 4 inches in the city with up to 8 inches in the hills. Southern California might get 1 to 2 inches with twice as much in the hilly areas.
In West Virginia, an inch or so was predicted for the next few days, but it was an ice-covered morning for iReporter Janie Lambert of Harpers Ferry.
“The roads were glazed and hazardous early in the morning,” she said. “By noon, the ice melted on the roadway but the trees were still an icy wonderland.”
CNN’s Christina Zdanwiscz contributed to this report.