Nor’easter Steering Toward New York City With Flooding Rainfall

A nor’easter barreling up the East Coast is aiming to soak the New York metro region starting around 4 p.m. today, whipping coastal areas with high winds and dropping a wet blanket on the baseball playoff game between the Yankees and the Houston Astros.

As much as 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) of rain will get wrung out of the storm that will move up the East Coast Wednesday, said Patrick Burke, a lead branch forecaster with the U.S. Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. Higher than normal tides could cause coastal flooding in New York and on Long Island.

“It looks like expectations have risen in terms of both rainfall and wind,” Burke said.

The disturbance may become so intense that it sets an October low-pressure record as it nears Boston and southern New England on Thursday, Burke said. Low pressure is a measure of storm’s intensity, helping to forecast the strength of its winds and depth of its rainfall. Pressure at the heart of hurricanes and blizzards, for instance, will often get quite low.

There is a 100% chance of heavy rain late Wednesday when the Yankees are set to meet the Astros in game 4 of their series. “That looks like a problem,” Burke said by telephone. “I doubt they are going to get that one in today.”

The storm comes a week after Tropical Storm Melissa grew out of another early season nor’easter off Massachusetts. The latest storm has sparked wind warnings and advisories across Delaware, New Jersey and eastern New England including Boston into Thursday.

A gale warning has been issued for the waters along the East Coast and a storm warning is in effect from the mid-Atlantic to New England.