Updated Nov. 1, 2019 6:54 PM
A line of intense thunderstorms caused hundreds of reports of wind damage and knocked out power to more than a half-million people at one point on Halloween night and into Friday morning.
Following an unusually warm and humid day in the Northeast on Thursday, the storms appeared to cause the most widespread damage across eastern Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey, but the impact was felt throughout the East.
An EF2 tornado was confirmed to have touched down Thursday night in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, the National Weather Service said after conducting a storm survey on Friday. The twister occurred near the town of Glen Mills, about 30 miles southwest of Philadelphia.
An EF1 tornado touched down on Thursday at least three different times in Lexington County, South Carolina, according to a public information statement by the National Weather Service. The second touchdown, which started near Red Bank and ended near Lexington, brought the most widespread tree damage. The strong winds uprooted and snapped trees and even tore off a portion of a small wooden building's metal roof.
The first and last touchdowns occurred in Gilbert, South Carolina, and Lexington, South Carolina, respectively. The tornado's third touchdown came close to the Lexington Middle School, though the only recorded damage involved toppled trees and downed power lines.
One person was critically injured near Colesville, Maryland, when a tree fell onto a car Thursday evening.
At least 300 locations in the East reported damaging winds on Thursday night, downing trees and power lines in areas throughout North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
On Friday morning, more than 826,000 customers across the Great Lakes, Northeast and mid-Atlantic were left in the dark as the storms swept eastward. By the afternoon, that number had dipped to around 500,000 with over 130,000 of those in Maine.
The strong storms also delayed flights in places like New York City and Philadelphia on Thursday evening, but rolled through late enough to keep the delay totals relatively low.
During the predawn hours of Friday, the storms continued their march eastward, taking down trees and power lines into Massachusetts and all across southern New England. The heavy winds and damaged caused over 80 schools to cancel classes on Friday, including 76 in Connecticut.
(Darren McGee / New York State Governor's Office via AP)
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In this photo provided by the New York State Governor's Office, houses are flooded by rising waters of the East Canada Creek, Friday, Nov. 1, 2019 in Dolgeville, N.Y. Several hundred people were being evacuated in scattered areas around the state because of high waters. (Darren McGee/New York State Governor's Office via AP)
In New England, winds gusts reached 70 mph at the Blue Hill Observatory in Milton, Massachusetts, while a number of locations in Rhode Island and Connecticut reached 59 mph.
The damage was not just limited to the Northeast. The line of storms extended southward, bringing widespread reports of wind damage across the southern Appalachians. A gust of 61 mph in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, was recorded.
Numerous reports of flash flooding came in from central New York. The National Weather Service in Albany issued a flash flood emergency for the village of Frankfort in southern Herkimer County on Friday. Residents located along north and south Litchfield Street near Moyer Creek were being advised to evacuate and head to Frankfort High School.
Frankfort is located along Interstate 90, about an hour east of Syracuse.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was in the town of Dolgeville along with members of the New York State Police early Friday as first responders conducted at least one water rescue. He shared a photo on Twitter of him consoling the town's mayor, Mary Puznowski, on Friday morning. Cuomo said Puznowski's mother died in a 2013 flooding event there. Hundreds were evacuated in various places around upstate New York, including in Dolgeville, in the wake of the storms.
Several rivers set new record heights on Friday morning as a result of the heavy rains.
The Mohawk River at Little Falls, New York, surpassed record flood stage early Friday. The river reached a height of 19.73 feet on Friday, narrowly surpassing the old record of 19.7 feet.
(Image/NWS Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service)
A new record river height was set at the Sacandaga River in Hope, New York. The river crested to 12.26 feet early Friday, surpassing the old record of 12 feet.
A cold front running into the warm and unusually humid air in place was the catalyst for the severe weather in the East. Temperatures from New York City to Washington, D.C., reached the 70s Thursday afternoon, while highs from parts of Virginia down through the Carolinas jumped into the 80s.
A narrow line of storms formed as a result, bringing the widespread damaging winds that toppled trees and power lines over such a large area.
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Tornado watches and even a few warnings were issued for portions of the mid-Atlantic into Thursday evening, but there have been no confirmed tornadoes as of early Friday morning.
Away from the line of thunderstorms, strong winds were blowing around the backside of a storm near the St. Lawrence Valley.
The persistent west-southwesterly flow blowing across Lake Erie pushed a large amount of water into western New York Thursday night, leading to flooding along the shoreline.
A persistent wind blowing out of the west-southwest led to water piling up in the eastern end of Lake Erie near Buffalo, leading to the spike in the lake level Thursday night. (Image/NOAA)
This event is known as a "seiche," and occurs when wind pushes water from one end of the body of water to the other, much like how water sloshes from one end of a bathtub to the other.
The push of water and the ensuing flooding Thursday night closed roads along the Lake Erie shoreline as winds gusted over 55 mph.
Strong, gusty winds will persist throughout the day on Friday across the Northeast as the storm system pulls away.
The wind brought a quick change from the warm and humid air mass to a much colder one in just the span of a few hours.
This colder weather pattern will persist over much of the eastern United States through the opening days of November.
Download the free AccuWeather app to see the latest forecast for your region. Keep checking back for updates on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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