Flood Threat to Escalate Along Gulf Coast This Week

By Brian Lada, Meteorologist

April 13,2015; 9:15PM,EDT

 

 

The danger of flooding will be on the rise this week across the Southeast as rounds of rain drench the region.
People from Texas to the Carolinas may find their best friends to be their umbrella, raincoat and rain boots this week as rain and thunderstorms soak the region each day through at least Friday.
Some locations could pick up over a foot of rain before the end of the week. This is in addition to all the rain that fell over the weekend.
The daily rounds of rain will cause many different impacts across the region, ranging from significant flooding to interruptions in daily routines.

"Folks with plans that involve being outside may want to cancel and reschedule them for another date," said AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Jordan Root.
Root added, "baseball games will have a high risk of being rained out across this area."
Travel delays are also likely as downpours can result in slowed traffic and thunderstorms could lead to delays at the airports.
Flooding could turn out to be the bigger impact; however, especially as the week progresses.
"The models are in general agreement that there's going to be a lot of rain over the South for the next several days," said AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist Frank Strait.
The threat of flooding will gradually increase as streams and rivers start to rise and the ground becomes saturated with water.
People that live along streams and rivers should take action now to protect any property that they own that is located within reach of the rising water levels.
Some roads may also become flooded, forcing people to find alternate routs to their destination.
Strait also warns that some thunderstorms, especially those closer to the Gulf Coast, could produce some severe weather. He notes though that the main thing to worry about will be the heavy rain.

The corridor of heaviest rain looks to focus on a zone stretching from eastern Texas to central Alabama.
This is the area that is most likely to receive widespread rainfall totals between 4 to 8 inches by the end of the week. Some locations in this zone may even pick up over a foot of rain between Monday and Friday.
Significant rainfall totals of this nature, while not as widespread, may also be possible in some communities elsewhere in the Southeast where torrential downpours impact the same area multiple days in a row.
Even when the rain ends, river flooding may still occur as the plethora of water makes its way downstream into bigger rivers, such as the Mississippi.

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There is a silver lining to all this rain despite the multitude of negative impacts.
Some portions of the South have been experiencing abnormally dry conditions over the past several weeks, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
This rain will help to alleviate these dry conditions heading into the start of the growing season.
Some rain, while not as heavy nor as persistent, will also fall across portions of northern Texas and western Oklahoma where there has been a long-term drought.
Rain is expected to fall over this portion of the country on through Tuesday followed by a break in the dry weather during the middle of the week. Rain will then return to Texas and Oklahoma for the end of the week and possibly into the weekend.
This break in the wet weather should minimize the threat of major flooding, but folks across this area should still be prepared for flash flooding during heavy downpours.
Know when the rain will start and stop for your exact location by using AccuWeather MinuteCast®