Heavy rain could ease drought concerns in parts of New Jersey

TRENTON (WABC) -- Forecasters are tracking a tropical storm as the threat of rain could ease drought fears in parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Periods of moderate to heavy rain could cause localized flooding in poor drainage areas in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania on Tuesday night and Wednesday.

Forecasters say Tropical Storm Joaquin could track north of the Mid-Atlantic coast late in the week. Depending on its path, there could be another round of heavy rain and flooding by the weekend.

Bergen County, along with the rest of northeastern New Jersey, is experiencing a moderate drought, with annual rainfall running over half a foot below average.

On a much larger scale, the northern New Jersey reservoirs have fallen under 45% of total capacity. This prompted voluntary water restrictions in much of the area.

We reached out to United Water for an update: "With temperatures beginning to fall, demand decreasing and rain in the forecast, we are in a somewhat better position than we were a few weeks ago," the company said. "There is no further short-term risk at this time regarding drought. However, we still need a fair amount of rain to replenish our supply. We welcome the rain we are expected to get."