Storms Drench Northeast, Snarl Travel

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Lightning in Milford, Conn. Strong storms are threatening the Northeast, and parts of Connecticut face flash flood and tornado warnings.

Updated at 4:11 PM CDT on Friday, Aug 10, 2012

Powerful storms continued to wallop the Northeast on Friday, threatening tornadoes and floods and causing hours of delays at some of the nation's busiest airports.

Weather.com forecast possible severe thunderstorms later in the day that could bring damaging wind gusts, large hail and some tornadoes, from upstate New York through New England and south to Virginia.

Spectacular Storm Photos

Powerful, slow-moving storms unleashed strong winds and dumped torrents over New Jersey. Isolated storms threatened New York City all day, too, in advance of a possibly severe storm expected to hit later in the day.

Extreme Weather 2012

Late Friday afternoon, incoming flights to New York-area airports were delayed for hours — with flights bound for LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International about two hours behind schedule as of 5 p.m. and flights heading for Newark Liberty International delayed more than three hours, according to FlightAware.com.

Washington, D.C.-area airports also saw delays, with thunderstorms grounding outgoing flights for more than an hour at Dulles International and just under an hour at Reagan National.

In Connecticut, tornado warnings were in effect until 5 p.m. for Tolland County, while New Haven and other coastal areas faced flash flood warnings Friday afternoon, NBC Connecticut reported. Tornado watches were in effect for most of the rest of the state until 9 p.m., and flood advisories were issued for half of the state.

Other cities in the crosshairs of the strong storms included Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond, Virginia Beach and Raleigh, AccuWeather reported.

The storm system in the region might not let up on Saturday, when more showers are expected and another strong thunderstorm possible, forecasters said. Skies were expected to clear Sunday, and a cool, dry front approaching over the weekend should follow those flash floods, Weather.com reported.