A lot of rain and wind as storm fueled by tropical air strikes the Northeast

Gusty winds and pouring rain swept across the Northeast on Dec. 11 as an atmospheric river moved up the East Coast.

Transcript

00:00Accubrothers Bill Waddell joins us live from the Hamptons. Bill, you've made it out to the Hamptons here.

00:05I know it's been a long journey through the city in the rain and the wind. How are the roads out this way?

00:11Yeah, hey Jeff, the roads are kind of rough getting around.

00:14Thankfully very dark and very quiet out here because most people are heeding the warnings and the advice and they are staying home. Now

00:21we have seen a little bit of a break in the rain at this hour.

00:25Definitely a lot heavier earlier as we see that band, that funnel kind of shift to the east.

00:30But a little bit earlier here in West Hampton

00:32we had wind gusts top out above 30 miles an hour and

00:35farther east of here near the far edge of Long Island there were wind gusts reported well above 50 miles an hour this afternoon.

00:43Tough to see here in the dark,

00:44but there is some street ponding and flooding here

00:47which people have come to expect in the Hamptons when you're dealing with a lot of rain.

00:51Now over in Dix Hills, New York

00:53you could see it was a breezy afternoon for people who did have to get to work. The flags were flapping in the wind, people

01:01rushing to their cars trying to stay dry after work.

01:04Officials have been urging people for days to work remotely or to use mass transit to avoid headaches on the Long Island Expressway and

01:11all of the slow traffic and gridlock that's being reported around the New York City Metro

01:17at this hour because of the rain and the wind. Over in Queens, the few leaves that were left on the trees earlier today

01:24well just about all of them have blown down. You can see all of the leaves on the ramps to the expressway.

01:29Crews have been busy before this storm arrived.

01:32They've been clearing drains to prevent clogs and street flooding.

01:36Now unlike most storms that we cover in December in the Northeast, this one Jeff, it's

01:43relatively mild speaking at times. At least earlier today, you could just feel that mugginess with this

01:49funnel of tropical moisture, you know, essentially an atmospheric river bringing in all of this moisture from

01:562,000 miles away down in the tropics. I'm familiar Jeff with covering atmospheric rivers out in the West Coast.

02:04This is, you know, my first type of setup with this one on the East Coast. Definitely a different feeling

02:09but a lot of rain, folks dealing with a lot of wind and

02:13a very slow drive home for people who do have to commute tonight.

02:15Yeah, well said there Bill and again the DNA of this air was and can be connected to the tropics there

02:21so, you know, it loses a little bit of its flavor over those 2,000 miles of this journey north

02:25but it's still warm and humid compared to typical December weather.