Flash Flood Watch Issued As New York, Other States Face Heavy Rainfall

A flash flood watch warning has been issued for New York and other parts of the Northeast, just days after the areas were battered by Tropical Storm Elsa.

In the early hours of Monday morning, the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) issued a flash flood watch warning for several states in the northeast, including Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut and New York.

In a tweet about the flash flood threat, the NWS wrote that there is "potential for heavy rain and flash flooding across parts of the Northeast tonight and especially Monday and Monday night, particularly poor drainage areas in the NYC metro region."

The agency explained that "the ground is wet from recent rainfall and the expected heavy rainfall may cause localized flash flooding, especially in urban and poor drainage areas. Some smaller streams may quickly rise out of their banks."

The NWS warned people to "not drive through flooded roadways as water depth and road conditions can be hard to determine."

A map accompanying the statement showed that the New York metro region is expected to receive the heaviest rainfall over the next two days, while Massachusetts and Pennsylvania will also be badly hit.

Washington is expected to be spared the heavy rainfall on Monday through to Tuesday, but parts of Maryland and New Hampshire are likely to feel the force of potential flash flood conditions.

The warning comes just the days after northeast areas of the U.S. were hit by heavy rainfall when the deadly Tropical Storm Elsa brought extreme weather to several states in the country.

Although by the time it reached northern states Elsa had weakened significantly from the 65mph winds that hit areas of Florida on Wednesday, the storm still caused flooding in the Northeast.

As the storm made its way to New York City on Thursday evening, the area was hit by flash floods and thunderstorms, resulting in videos being posted to social media showing people attempting to wade through a flooded subway station, while water poured down from the ceiling and cascaded down the stairs of others.

New York and several other areas of the Northeast received gusty winds of over 40mph on Friday, as areas of Maine got around 6 inches of rain from the storm.

Elsa made landfall in the U.S. on Wednesday afternoon, killing one person in Jacksonville, Florida, after a tree fell onto two cars. Several others were injured in nearby Georgia when a tornado struck a Navy base.

"Weather is unpredictable," Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry said at a press conference on Wednesday following reports of the death. "This is really early in the [hurricane] season. We're just outside of the July 4th holiday, we've had our first storm and, unfortunately, we've had a fatality."

Despite the death, Florida and nearby states were mainly spared from the major damage and widespread power outages that were expected from Elsa, which was the first major storm of the season.

Newsweek has contacted the NWS for comment.