Rounds of Heavy Storms, Flood Risk to Return to Central States This Week

By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist

June 8,2015; 9:17PM,EDT

 

 

Following a brief hiatus, rounds of rain and thunderstorms will renew the risk of flooding to parts of the Plains later this week and this weekend.
A front is forecast to stall west to east from the central Rockies to the central Plains and part of the Midwest this week. The front, which will separate warm, dry air to the north from hot, very humid air to the south, will also act as an atmospheric highway for repeating rounds of showers and thunderstorms.
Tropical moisture will join in for a time adding to the volatility of the thunderstorms and the potential for excessive rainfall.

According to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski, "While some of moisture from the remnants of Blanca will rain out over the Southwest, some moisture will survive the trip farther to the east over the Plains and Midwest."
Storms will fire during much of the week over the Rockies but will begin to expand across the central Plains beginning on Wednesday and will continue into the weekend.
The greatest risk for excessive rain and the risk of flooding will be centered from Nebraska and northern Kansas to southern Minnesota and southwestern Wisconsin. However, rounds of storms with heavy rain and the risk of flooding can extend as far north as Wyoming, South Dakota, northern Minnesota and parts of Michigan and southward to the northern Texas Panhandle to northwestern Oklahoma and Illinois.
RELATED:
AccuWeather Summer 2015 Forecast
Blanca to Raise Risk of Southwest US Downpours
Track and Monitor Rain Start, End Times With AccuWeather Minutecast®
According to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Tyler Dewvall, "There is an elevated risk of major flooding from central Missouri to central Nebraska, essentially along the Missouri and North Platte rivers."
There is the potential for localized rainfall of more than 6 inches in this swath through the middle of June in the upcoming pattern.
Streams and rivers are running high in the region. A number of locations over the central Plains have received close to a foot of rain since early May, which is double the average for the period.
The forecast pattern could bring renewed flooding to some communities and cause flooding for the first time this year in others.
A flow of moist tropical air will also lead to an uptick in showers and thunderstorms in parts of central and eastern Texas and the southern Plains by the weekend. Some of these locations were hit with 1-2 feet of rain during May.
According to AccuWeather Chief Long Range Meteorologist Paul Pastelok, the return of moisture could aggravate flooding for part of the South Central states.
"A tropical connection can lead to renewed torrential downpours which could add to flooding problems from parts of Texas to Louisiana and Arkansas during the middle part of the month," Pastelok said.
According to a recent report from the National Climatic Data Center, May 2015 was the wettest month on record for the contiguous United states.
In the report, the states of Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas had a record wet May which resulted in widespread flooding. The drought footprint shrunk to 24.6 percent, which is the smallest coverage of drought across the nation since February 2011. The current stats include extreme drought gripping the West.
AccuWeather.com will continue to provide updates on the storm and flooding potential for the Central states as the week progresses.