Life-threatening flooding risk from the South to Midwest

AccuWeather

AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jon Porter warns of a high risk for a life-threatening and potentially historic flash flood event this week, stretching from Arkansas to as far as southern Ohio.

Transcript

00:00John, we have other problems as we go through tomorrow, especially later in this week.

00:05Let's talk about this high risk of flooding.

00:09Bernie, AccuWeather flooding experts are concerned about a life-threatening and historic flooding

00:14event across parts of the central United States with a feed of warm, moist air.

00:19At the same time, several atmospheric jet stream disturbances coming across this area.

00:25This means repeated downpours in the same area from parts of Arkansas toward Kentucky

00:31and Tennessee, and major flooding is going to ensue in these areas.

00:35You know, John, we were looking at this product a while ago.

00:38This is called the Moisture Continental.

00:42First of all, water temperature anomalies are running well above normal in the Gulf

00:47of Mexico.

00:48Take a look at all that yellow, orange, and the red.

00:50So it's a few degrees above the historical average.

00:53So we have a lot of warm water.

00:55John, explain this graphic to everybody.

00:58This is the moisture content graphic.

01:01Yeah, the areas of deeper moisture through the atmosphere are located in these reds and

01:07yellows.

01:08And look at what we have here.

01:09We have a direct feed of tropical moisture from all the way down to the Caribbean, all

01:15the way up through the Gulf, and into the central part of the United States.

01:19And this is why we are so concerned about this.

01:22Look at reds and yellows in here, indicating focusing of that deep tropical moisture over

01:27several days, a deep feed of moisture that will continually be replenished.

01:33That's the setup for a historic and life-threatening flash flooding event.

01:38Let's take a look at the rainfall amounts, John.

01:40I mean, this is a large area of at least six inches of rain.

01:45It sure is a multi-state area.

01:47Look at this.

01:48We have a 12- to 18-inch area here across parts of Kentucky, southwestward through Arkansas.

01:54It is extremely unusual for us to talk about this level of rainfall outside of a tropical

02:01storm or hurricane.

02:02Of course, this is a totally different setup.

02:03But think about this.

02:04This is the kind of rain that this area would get if you had a couple of tropical systems

02:09come by.

02:10We're going to have that here over several days.

02:13And it's not going to be just major flooding in a few spots, Bernie.

02:17This could be over a multi-state area with very serious and extreme flash flooding.

02:22Our flash flooding expert, Alex Cisnowski, we were just in map discussion talking with

02:26him.

02:27Earlier today, he said, as bad as it gets, John, we have about 15 seconds.

02:33We're going to talk about roads and bridges potentially destroyed or washed out in these

02:37areas.

02:38Roads are going to be closed.

02:39Be extra careful in these communities.

02:41Follow the AccuWeather app.

02:43AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter.

02:46John, a sad situation setting up, unfortunately, later this week.

Category

Transcript

Recommended