Hurricane Ida May Bring Flooding To MA: See Timing, Forecast

MARLBOROUGH, MA — A little more than a week after Hurricane Henri brought wild weather to Massachusetts, Hurricane Ida is on the horizon with more.

The category 4 storm, which made landfall near New Orleans on Sunday, will travel northeast across the U.S. this week, likely reaching New England by late Wednesday. Ida will be much weaker by then, but meteorologists are warning of heavy rains, which may mean flooding in some areas.

"The remnants of Ida will affect Southern New England with the potential for heavy rainfall, the potential for urban, poor drainage, river, stream and flash flooding and isolated to scattered severe thunderstorm potential late Wednesday to late Thursday," the local weather group SKYWARN said in an advisory Monday.

The National Weather Service office in Norton, meanwhile, is predicting rainfall between 2 and 4 inches across the region, although some areas might see between 4 and 6 inches. The heaviest rains may fall between Wednesday night and late Thursday.

The region has seen an active storm season in August beginning with the remnants of storm Fred, which dropped an enormous amount of rain in the Worcester area on Aug. 19 and caused a tornado in Clinton. Henri's arrival a few days later was relatively minor — but when Henri swung back out to sea last Monday, the storm brought three confirmed tornadoes to the Marlborough area and heavy rainfall.

The exact impact of Ida was still unclear as of Monday, but the weather service warned residents to prepare for possible local flooding.

"Periods of moderate to heavy rainfall could lead to urban and poor drainage flooding. However, there still remains uncertainty in exactly where the heaviest rain will fall," NWS said in a hazardous weather outlook bulletin Monday.