AccuWeather.com

By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist

Sep 8, 2010; 3:10 PM ET

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This is what the weather map will look like over the southern Plains during Thursday.

Hermine spawned several tornadoes in Texas Wednesday evening as the system continues to move slowly northeastward.

Around 6:16 CDT, a tornado was reported 3 miles west of Highland Park in Dallas County, Texas. The Houston Chronicle reports that the series of weak tornadoes in the Dallas area have injured at least one person.

Flooding downpours from Tropical Rainstorm Hermine will continue to spread over the middle of the nation through the end of the week.

According to Doppler radar, shows a mass of rain spreading northeastward from northern Texas and much of Oklahoma to Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas this evening.

Portions of central Texas have been hit with over a foot of rain from Hermine the past several days. In some areas the rain continues to pour down at the rain of an inch an hour or more. An additional half a foot of rain or more can fall in parts of the southern Plains through Thursday.

Enough rain will fall in these areas to cause urban, lowland and small stream flooding. Significant rises along some of the rivers can also be expected.

While the amount of rain will tend to pencil out with time, moving northward and eventually eastward, enough rain may even fall in localized areas to cause flooding late in the week over part of the middle Mississippi and the lower Ohio Valleys.

Expert Senior Meteorologist, Evan Myers stated Monday, "In this area, the remnants of Hermine, as a tropical rainstorm, will interact with a front, maintaining the potential for flooding."

Life-threatening flash flooding is already occurring in the Lone Star State, and flooding problems will affect areas farther to the northeast.

Eventually downpours of disruptive nature may even swing into the metropolitan areas of Kansas City and St. Louis before the end of the week.

Motorists can expect slow travel at times from downpours, ponding and low visibility along local roads, but also interstate highways: 10, 20, 35, 40 and 44.

In the hardest hit areas, there may even be closures of highways. Stretches of I-35 were closed in Georgetown, Texas, due to high water on Wednesday morning.

Computer models break down Tropical Rainstorm Hermine over the Ohio Valley at the end of the week.

Interestingly, history has shown that tropical systems of this size tend to break down much more slowly. As a result, Hermine's rainfall may still be a concern for part of the Appalachians and the East Coast this weekend.

On a positive note, rainfall is welcome in needy areas of the southern Plains and the lower Mississippi Valley. Recall that much of this region was roasting in relentless heat much of the summer and soil moisture had taken a hit.

Yellow indicates regions of dry conditions. Orange indicates areas of severe to extreme drought. The Palmer Drought Index map appears courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Oklahoma City had received less than 20 percent of its normal rainfall from August 1 to September 7.

Even in much of the East, rainfall would be welcome away from outdoor sporting events.

Related to the Story:

South Central Radar

Severe Weather Center

2010 Hurricane Center

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