At a Glance

Henri began east of Bermuda, yet still made its way to New England.The biggest impact was rainfall flooding, particularly in New Jersey and the New York City metro area.A few weak tornadoes were spawned in Massachusetts.

Hurricane Henri was born as Tropical Depression Eight east-northeast of Bermuda on Aug. 15, then became a tropical storm the following afternoon.

While initially expected to curl northeast away from the U.S. East Coast, the forecast began to trend toward a New England brush, if not outright landfall, as Henri fell under the influence of a swirl of low pressure tens of thousands of feet above the ground arriving from the Ohio Valley into the mid-Atlantic states.

Henri then became a hurricane on Aug. 21 when it was less than 200 miles east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

After passing north of the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, Henri began weakening and was downgraded to a tropical storm on Aug. 22 before its southern New England landfall.

The center of Henri moved ashore around 12:15 p.m. Aug. 22 in southwest Rhode Island near the town of Westerly, about 40 miles southwest of the state's capital city, Providence.

Maximum sustained winds at landfall were 60 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.

were clocked along the coast of Rhode Island around landfall. Great Gull Island off the eastern end of Long Island clocked a 72 mph gust.

Trees and wires were downed in parts of Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Over 100,000 customers lost power in New England, New York and New Jersey, according to poweroutage.us.

The most destructive impacts were from .

drenched parts of New Jersey, triggering major flooding in several areas.

In Middlesex County, numerous roads were closed and vehicles submerged. Homes were flooded with 3 feet of water in Cranbury, some residences and businesses were flooded in Milltown, and evacuations were needed in .

Rainfall flooding reports (blue dots) and estimated rainfall (contours) during Henri from Aug. 21-23, 2021.

(Storm reports: NOAA/NWS)

Heavy rain also triggered flooding in the New York City metro on the night of Aug. 21, including in Brooklyn, and Newark. Almost 2 inches of rain fell in one hour from 10 to 11 p.m. at New York's Central Park.

Another band of soaking rain set up over the New York City Tri-State area the following afternoon into the evening, flooding stretches of the Bronx River, Sprain Brook and Taconic State Parkways. Parts of New York City's five boroughs picked up .

In eastern Pennsylvania, basements were flooded in Smithfield Township, vehicles were submerged in Scranton, and flooding shut down a stretch of Interstate 80 between Bartonsville and Tannersville.

The only tornadoes spawned by Henri occurred the day after landfall, a in eastern Massachusetts between Worcester and Boston.

Editor's note: The article was edited to remove an NWS claim of a record 1-hour rain rate at New York City's Central Park during Henri. Climatologist Brian Brettschneider found two occurrences of heavier rain rates at Central Park in 1926 and 1905.

Water floods a home and the street around it during Tropical Storm Henri in Groton, Conn., on Aug. 22, 2021. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, .