4070 Storm Map: Prolonged Coastal Storm Threat Friday Into the Weekend

On today's storm map, we're continuing to watch the coastal storm develop along the Northeast coast, and there is still considerable disagreement among the forecast models regarding the storm's exact track.

The European model continues to take the system somewhat farther west, toward the New Jersey coast, while the GFS holds onto a track that brings the storm northward toward approximately Cape Cod before turning it back out to sea.

Regardless of which solution ultimately verifies, there will still be a significant amount of storminess across the Northeast coastline.

The areas expected to experience the most significant impacts will be Long Island and southern New England, where wind gusts could reach 50 to 64 miles per hour. Heavy rainfall will accompany the strongest winds, and the combination of rain, wind, and rough seas will create difficult conditions along the coast.

Coastal impacts will extend much farther south and north. From the Maine coast southward through New England, Long Island, and down toward the New Jersey coast, high tides combined with strong onshore winds and increasing wave action could produce coastal flooding and beach erosion.

The exact track will determine where the strongest winds and heaviest rainfall ultimately occur, but the overall threat remains significant even with the continuing model differences.

The bottom line: this is shaping up to be a significant coastal storm, with strong winds, heavy rain, coastal flooding, and beach erosion the primary concerns from New Jersey through Long Island and New England.