Soaking rain to end weekend, dampen Mother's Day in Northeast

By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist

Mom will have to light up the room on her own as a rainstorm will drench and cool many areas by Sunday, Mother's Day, in the northeastern United States.

One of the same storm systems responsible for torrential rainfall and flooding in coastal Texas and the lower Mississippi Valley will travel slowly northeastward this weekend.

At the same time, a push of much cooler air will invade from the North. While this cool push may keep rain away from the northern parts of New York state and New England, it won't be enough for the same farther south.

The best bet for plans such as outdoor graduations and travel this weekend will be on Saturday.

However, the first part of the weekend will be wet over portions of Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia.

The cool air from the north combined with the tropical moisture from the south will make for miserable conditions over the mid-Atlantic, central Appalachians and southern part of New England on Sunday.

"People heading out on Mother's Day will not only need an umbrella, but also a warm jacket," according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Brian Thompson.

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AccuWeather 2019 US summer forecast

In the rain on Sunday, temperatures will be in the 40s F much of the time in the mountains and mainly in the 50s near the coast. With the rain, AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures can dip 5-8 degrees lower.

Average high temperatures this time of the year range from near 60 in northern Maine to the middle 70s in southeastern Virginia.

Enough rain can fall to cause street and poor drainage area flooding.

This graphic only shows the area of anticipated heaviest rainfall. Lesser rain and drizzle are likely farther to the north.

In a few extreme cases, enough rain may fall to cause flooding along small streams, especially those that flow through urban locations.

"Total rainfall with this storm from Saturday night to Sunday night will average 1-3 inches," according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson. "An AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 5 inches is likely in parts of the Virginia and West Virginia mountains and perhaps in a pocket near the mid-Atlantic coast."

People in northern New England and northern New York state should be able to brag about having the best weather in the Northeast this weekend as the storm is forecast to slip by to their south on Sunday.

Meanwhile, in portions of southern Virginia, the Carolinas and part of Georgia, there is the potential for severe thunderstorms with damaging wind gusts on Sunday.

Wet weather to prevail in Northeast through late May

Some locations had their nicest stretch of weather of the entire month this week.

As AccuWeather predicted early this week, the upcoming pattern through much of May in the Northeast will be strewn with storms of varying intensity with moisture ranging from spotty showers to episodes of drenching rain and thunderstorms.

It may be difficult for there to be 48 consecutive hours of totally dry weather in some places.

Fans endure rain during the seventh inning of a baseball game between the New York Yankees and the Kansas City Royals, Friday, April 19, 2019, in New York. Frequent rain will continue to dampen sporting events and outdoor activities, according to AccuWeather meteorologists. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

A buckle in the jet stream will slow the west-to-east progression of storms during the middle to latter part of the month.

The pattern is also likely to lead to day-to-day fluctuations in temperature.

There may also be the risk of some frost in the normally colder spots where the sky becomes clear at night in between the storms.

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