Vegetation along the New Jersey coast is rightly suffering from a lack of moisture, but in recent days some of the flooded streets have taken on a Venetian color, and that trend could continue through Monday.

After several days of severe flooding in the beach towns, the National Weather Service issued a flood warning for Cape May County on Saturday that is in effect until 5 p.m. Sunday.

In addition, flood warnings are in effect for Cape May and Atlantic counties until 5:00 p.m. Monday.

Significant flooding occurred Saturday in Sea Isle City, Ventnor – where the Dorset Avenue Bridge had to be closed in the afternoon due to high water – and elsewhere.

How can the flooding be explained in a month when Atlantic City Airport recorded just 0.07 inches of rain—three percent of normal—and nearly the entire Philadelphia region was classified as “abnormally dry” by the interagency U.S. Drought Monitor?

And it’s not like the wind is howling from the sea.

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Tuesday night’s “supermoon” — one of the closest lunar approaches of the year — may have affected tidal flow earlier in the week. But the main cause of this weekend’s flooding may have been a storm that meandered off the southeast coast, said Jim Eberwine, Absecon’s emergency manager and former member of the Mount Holly National Weather Service office.

While the offshore winds were not particularly impressive, the storm had been churning up the sea for days, he said.

Scott Homan, a meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc., said the storm’s persistence pushed large waves offshore toward the beaches.

The weather service says that in the areas under flood warnings, “numerous roads may be closed” and that flooding may affect some homes and businesses.

In the warning areas, water is expected on regular roads. Partial or complete road closures are expected in beach and bay towns.

The disruptive storm at sea is expected to drift south, reducing the risk of flooding at the start of the week, but rainfall deficits are likely to continue.

Showers are possible Tuesday night into Thursday, but nothing that would destroy the drought, said Joe DeSilva, a meteorologist at the Mount Holly office.

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What was conspicuously absent this month were the downpours from the remnants of tropical storms that had caused considerable rainfall in previous Septembers – sometimes even too much.

But although meteorologists say the Atlantic basin could experience a hurricane season like no other, the number of tropical storms so far is well below normal.

Rainfall has occurred in the Philadelphia region that was either “weak or too distant.”

Homan said a storm in the Gulf could bring some rain toward the end of the work week, but that is far from a foregone conclusion.

We could certainly use some rain, but please not too much.