Potential nor'easter could bring flooding, gusts to NYC this weekend

Theresa Braine, New York Daily News on Sep 22, 2026

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NEW YORK — As autumn arrives, a rare September nor’easter could bring coastal flooding, high winds, rain and coastal erosion to the region and potentially disrupt travel, meteorologists warned Tuesday.

A full moon’s tides will exacerbate the situation, the National Weather Service noted.

The storm’s path depends a bit on which weather system wins out between a high-pressure zone forming near the Great Lakes and a low-pressure system that’s moving north along the East Coast. The closer they get, The Weather Channel predicted, the stronger the winds will get.

“The low’s track will determine the strength of the winds and overall intensity,” NWS meteorologist James Connolly told the New York Daily News.

It was slated to take shape Wednesday and Thursday, taking “a slow track up to the Northeast,” Connolly said. “This is where the questions come up” as to whether it moves toward Cape Cod, out across the open Atlantic, or back toward the coast. “That remains to be seen.”

If the storm skews offshore, the impact will be lesser, but if it drifts closer to land, it could become a “full-blown nor’easter (that) could lead to major travel disruptions due to flooding rain, wind gusts that could trigger power outages and significant coastal flooding,” according to AccuWeather, noting it could even “take on some characteristics of a tropical storm.”

In that scenario the strongest winds and rain would hit the New York City metro area on Friday and early Saturday Connolly said, which would put a damper on the Global Citizen Festival taking place in Central Park this weekend.

Three years ago, a heavy storm during that same music festival led to extensive damage to the park’s Great Lawn, necessitating its closure for several months.

The storm “will at the very least result in multiple episodes of minor to localized moderate coastal flooding, dangerous rip currents, and some beach flooding/erosion,” the National Weather Service predicted.

New England was expected to see the biggest impact.

“The rain could extend far enough north to ease the ongoing drought in Maine,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Chad Merrill told the weather service. “Regardless of how close to the coast the storm tracks, it has the potential to become strong enough to bring soaking rain and gusty winds in coastal areas, while prolonged rough surf may cause well above-normal tides and beach erosion.”

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