Flood risk continues for Southeast as downpours unleash up to 2 inches of rain per hour

By Courtney Spamer, Meteorologist

August 3,2016; 7:04PM,EDT

 

 

Additional rounds of heavy thunderstorms will heighten the flooding threat in the southeastern United States through the end of the week and into the weekend.
Repetitive downpours over the last few days have brought as much as 4 inches of rain to some places across the South.
"A stalled frontal boundary across the Southeast will continue to set the stage for a several-day stretch of heavy rainfall," according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Brett Rathbun.

This will hold in moisture streaming up from the Gulf of Mexico, with slow-moving thunderstorms over the Carolinas and into the southern Atlantic Coast.
"The large amount of moisture in the atmosphere will make it easy for storms to produce rainfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour," Rathbun said.
The greatest threat for the heaviest thunderstorms will be from central and eastern North Carolina to the Florida Panhandle and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Flash flooding will be most likely to occur in the areas where storms repeat.
As the front slowly sinks southward into the weekend, parts of southeastern Virginia and the Carolinas may trend less wet with storms becoming much more spotty in nature.
Despite the shrinking nature of the heavy downpours, travel could still be impacted across the East.
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"Those traveling along Interstate 95 from Benson, North Carolina, to Jacksonville, Florida, will want to slow down in downpours to reduce the risk of hydroplaning. Never drive through a flooded roadway," Rathbun said.
There could also be delays at air travel to any airport from Raleigh to Pensacola, which could have a cascading effect to other major airports across the country.
Spotty showers and thunderstorms will extend across the rest of the Southeast, reaching parts of the Tennessee and Mississippi valleys during this weekend.
Due to their scattered nature, these thunderstorms will not be enough to help make up the deficit of rain so far this summer across parts of the interior South, especially over the Tennessee Valley and southern Appalachians.
Drought-stricken areas of northern Georgia and eastern Tennessee will need many days of steady rain to return to near normal.