Tornado warnings, flash flooding threaten Northeast from Kentucky to New York

The National Weather Service in Jackson issued a tornado warning for southwest Kentucky at 6:30 p.m. EDT Tuesday, July 21, 2026, and kept it in effect until 7:15 p.m. EDT as the same storm system pushed a broad severe-weather threat toward New York. Damaging winds, large hail, lightning, flash flooding and a possible tornado threatened a corridor from Kentucky to New York.

The National Weather Service in Philadelphia and Mount Holly upgraded eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore to level 3 out of 5, an enhanced severe-thunderstorm risk, for Tuesday, and issued a Flood Watch along the I-95 corridor. In Kentucky, multiple rounds of thunderstorms were expected, with damaging wind, heavy rain, hail and flooding possible, and Lexington city offices closed early as the storms moved closer.

Governor Kathy Hochul’s office expected numerous and widespread severe storms across New York, with the strongest storms and heaviest rain expected Tuesday afternoon into evening. New York City Emergency Management issued a weather alert ahead of thunderstorms on July 20, 2026, as the city prepared for the same system that was driving warnings farther west.

More than 25 million people across the Northeast were under alert at one point, with the Ohio Valley, the Mid-Atlantic and New York all facing the risk of dangerous storms.