Pittsburgh Expected To Feel Tropical Storm Debby's Punch

PITTSBURGH, PA — Western Pennsylvania will feel the effects of Tropical Storm Debby as it crawls north, but forecasters differ on how impactful the storm will be here.

Debby made its second US landfall early Thursday about 20 miles northeast of Charleston, South Carolina. As it moves inward, it is expected to bring torrential rains, extensive flooding and potential tornadoes across the Northeast.

The National Weather Service said that as Debby drifts north into Eastern Pennsylvania, it will bring the potential for flooding rain beginning later tonight and lasting through Friday.

"More likely than not, a sharp gradient between higher end totals and lower totals will set up somewhere east of Pittsburgh," the agency stated on social media early Thursday. "Its location is the main uncertainty over the next 24 hours."

One certainty is that conditions will deteriorate the further east one travels. Flood watches are posted east of Westmoreland County. Altoona is expecting three to five inches of rain, with locally higher amounts of up to seven inches possible.

State College-based AccuWeather advised in its Pittsburgh forecast to be prepared for flooding. AccuWeather is calling for as much as two inches of rain to fall on Friday between 5 a.m. and 8 p.m.

The Weather Channel's Friday forecast calls for the possibility of locally heavy rainfall, with the Pittsburgh area receiving about an inch of precipitation.