Forecasters worried about potentially historic flooding across a large swath of the US

AccuWeather

Some communities could experience four months of rain in less than a week due to extreme rainfall that will stretch from the South through the Midwest and up into the Northeast.

Transcript

00:00We really want to focus on the biggest problem at hand, and we're now joined by Accuweather chief

00:05meteorologist John Porter. And John, we're exceptionally concerned about the flooding

00:09that will slowly ramp up even after the tornadoes fade away. That's right, Jeff. Accuweather

00:16flooding experts are concerned about a historic and life-threatening flooding event over many days

00:22from the middle to the end of the week here across parts of the central United States.

00:27A very concerning setup because we're going to have a continuous feed of an atmospheric river.

00:33We're used to dealing with those on the east coast or west coast of the U.S. and sometimes

00:37on the east coast of the U.S. But this one, a channeled area of tropical moisture, is going

00:42to be directed in the central part of the United States. And the whole weather pattern is like a

00:46big traffic jam. The breaks are coming on here across the eastern part of the United States,

00:52and that means that the rain is going to be focused over the same places, leading to that

00:56very significant flooding threat. And John, when we take a look at kind of the x-ray of where the

01:02moisture vapor or the water vapor and the moisture is present in the atmosphere, there's an abundance

01:07of this funneling right on in. Yeah, this really tells the story. And what you're looking at here

01:12is the level of atmospheric moisture in the areas where there's red and orange here. These are high

01:18levels of moisture in the atmosphere. And look where it's coming from. All the way in the

01:22Caribbean Sea through the Gulf, right up into the central part of the U.S. That corridor from

01:27Arkansas, southeast Missouri, over toward Tennessee and Kentucky. You're going to hear that over and

01:32over again because that's the area that we're most concerned about. And it continues to be

01:36focused there for several days on end, round after round of persistent downpours. That rain is coming

01:43too fast, too furious. And Jeff, in some areas we are going to be talking about the risk to receive

01:48what might typically occur from a rainfall perspective over four months in just five days.

01:53So that's why we're talking about such a historic concern here. And unfortunately this map looks

01:58very similar for say Thursday night and Thursday night, Friday, Saturday, Saturday night, even into

02:03Sunday. So it's a long-lasting issue. And the moisture source here is one that is running

02:09warmer than normal for this time of the year. So this is higher octane fuel.

02:12This is high octane fuel to feed these persistent downpours. Look at that. The

02:18water in the Gulf and then also in the Caribbean, some two to five degrees above the long-term

02:23seasonal averages. And so when air dwells over that warm water, it takes on that warmth and

02:28that moisture is going to be transported north a direct feed of tropical moisture. Big problems.

02:35Absolutely. So by the numbers, John, how bad will this be?

02:38By the numbers, we're talking about a widespread area of 12 to 18 inches of rain

02:43over a several day time period here from parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, down toward Arkansas,

02:50with an AccuWeather local storm max of 21 inches, which means that that's the maximum conceivable

02:55value in any spot. This is a significant and historic rain event. We don't typically talk

03:01about this amount of rainfall in this part of the country without a tropical storm or hurricane.

03:06Of course, that's a totally different situation. That's not what we're dealing with now,

03:10but the rain amounts are going to be extremely impressive. And it's not going to be just

03:15a few communities that deal with flash flooding. This is the risk for

03:18in some places, catastrophic flash flooding over a multi-state area.

03:23And John, other hazards here, kind of the impacts of this tremendous rainfall,

03:29obviously all rivers will be rising. I don't think there's a way that we avoid true major

03:33flooding, which puts water into homes. What else are we expecting here?

03:36Well, there's also going to be many roadway closures, both interstates and local roads

03:41in these areas. Bridges and roads can be completely washed out, railways in some areas.

03:47That can cause some big transportation impacts in these areas. And the other thing to mention

03:51is people who live along bodies of water, creeks and streams, other low-lying areas,

03:57that's going to be the greatest risk initially. But then as that water runs off, it's going to

04:01run off into the rivers. And we're going to be talking about a multi-day major flooding event

04:06long after the rain ends. So this flooding is going to be a very serious situation here.

04:11If you know people that live in this area, please give them a call, send them a text message,

04:16let them know about the threat. Great time to download the AccuWeather app, turn on push

04:19notifications so you can get warnings delivered by AccuWeather on average faster than any source.

04:26Our information is here to help you be better prepared and stay safer. This is a dangerous

04:30setup and we want people to be aware of water has tremendous power. And in this event, some

04:36of the rainfall rates and the rainfall amounts are going to be very extreme, which means big

04:42flooding concerns. All right, AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist John Porter. Thanks again, John.

04:46We're going to stay on top of this obviously through the weekend. Thanks.

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