Foot of rain causes mudslides in CT, downs trees before fresh round of Sunday night t-storms

The soggy start to Sunday was merely an appetizer before the main course: strong thunderstorms and damaging winds threaten our evening.

An already sopping Connecticut was issued a flash flood emergency for Fairfield and New Haven counties around 3 p.m. following heavy rainfall. The National Weather Service was investigating reports of water rescues and mudslides in the area.

People were urged to move to higher ground immediately. Check the latest weather alerts for your neighborhood here.

Heavy rainfall battering that area was scheduled to last through 6 p.m., at least. Those rainfall rates were falling at a rate of 1-2 inches per hour.

So far, preliminary rainfall totals in Connecticut areas have reached 8-10 inches, the bulk of which fell in a matter of just six hours.

The worst of the rainfall may be isolated to parts of Connecticut, but New York and New Jersey certainly won't be immune to the severe weather threat in store for the evening.

The cloudy, muggy and showery conditions that the rest of our area saw for most of Sunday wasn't going to last past dinner.

A line of severe thunderstorms accompanied by damaging winds was moving into New Jersey during the afternoon and expected to push across the tri-state by the evening. A severe thunderstorm watch was in effect until 10 p.m.

More heavy rain is likely to lead to additional flooding.

As we start the week, a few more scattered storms are in the forecast for Monday night before a nice, refreshing air mass moves in for the middle of the week.

The temperatures could give us our first preview of fall, with some of the coolest days we've seen in more than two months.