Watching the Western Gulf for New Flooding Threat
11/4/2009 9:59 AM
AccuWeather.com Meteorologists remain concerned about the threat of more flooding rain next week in
hard hit areas of the lower Mississippi Valley.
By Alex
Sosnowski
AccuWeather.com
AccuWeather.com meteorologists
remain concerned about the threat of more
flooding rain next week in
hard-hit areas of the lower
Mississippi Valley.
Sunshine will prevail most days through Saturday over the troubled areas, and in much of the Southeast states for that matter.
There are continuing signs that a tropical
low pressure area will further
develop in the western Gulf of Mexico late in the week. From there, steering winds could bring that system and its drenching rainfall northward into
Louisiana Sunday.
That rainfall would then continue to spread across the lower
Mississippi
Valley early next week.
Rainfall on the
saturated ground would almost immediately
cause small streams to rise and low-lying areas to flood. How much rain falls would determine the magnitude of new rises in water levels on the major
rivers.
The system in the western Gulf should not be confused with Hurricane Ida in the western Caribbean. That separate feature could bring flooding rain to
parts of Central America over the next several days.
Even after numerous days of dry weather, several rivers from
eastern Texas
and Louisiana to Illinois are expected to remain above flood stage by the time the tropical rain arrives.
The flooding that continues early this November follows an extremely wet October across the
Mississippi Valley. Many places received more than three times their typical
October rainfall.
Monroe, La., was inundated by 20.54 inches of rain this past
October. That was over five times the 3.91 inches that typically falls.
Memphis, Tenn., received 10.56 inches of rain in October and
was more than three times their average rainfall of 3.31 inches.
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