Weather Alert: High Winds, Tornado Watch In Effect

West Orange and the surrounding areas are under a high wind watch from noon Tuesday until 6 a.m. Wednesday, and is expected to see nearly two inches of rain on Tuesday. The National Weather Service has issued a heavy rain forecast for much of the East Coast.

The National Weather Service has also issued a tornado watch for Essex County until 7 p.m. Tuesday.

A high wind watch means there is the potential for sustained winds of at least 40 miles per hour or gusts of 58 miles per hour or stronger may occur.

A heavy rain system is moving up I-95 on Tuesday and into Wednesday.

Thursday and Friday are predicted to be foggy with a high temperature of around 71 degrees.

The good news is that a sunny weekend with almost no chance of rain is predicted.

However, heavy rains and high winds may cause dangerous conditions on roadways.

In addition, New Jersey Transit released the following statement Tuesday afternoon:

Due to the strong storms expected to impact our region later today and to offer our customers additional transportation options, NJ TRANSIT will be implementing full, system-wide cross-honoring between 3 pm and midnight on NJ TRANSIT bus, rail, and light rail services.  

Additionally, NJ TRANSIT will be positioning maintenance crews to rapidly respond to potential service disruptions, and will be deploying additional customer service representatives to assist customers during this time as needed.

High winds, severe thunderstorms and the potential for flooding are expected from the approaching weather system. NJ TRANSIT encourages customers to plan their travels accordingly for this evening, and consider adjusting their travel schedules to travel outside of this time period.

Customers are reminded that they can log onto njtransit.com, or follow NJ TRANSIT’s twitter feed at @nj_transit for the latest travel information.