Gordon to unleash inland flooding, isolated tornadoes in south-central US
As Gordon moves inland over the southern United States, risks to lives and property will continue from flooding rainfall and isolated tornadoes into Friday.
Gordon has taken one life and knocked out power to tens of thousands along the central Gulf coast.
AccuWeather meteorologists expect Gordon to take a curved, northward path across the Mississippi Valley into this weekend.
The most widespread threat to people, homes and businesses will be from flash flooding.
Even though Gordon has become a tropical rainstorm, moisture will continue to stream in from the Gulf of Mexico.
Bands of torrential downpours have the potential to bring rainfall rates of up to an inch per hour and a general 2-4 inches of additional rain from northwestern Mississippi to central Arkansas.
Gordon has already delivered heavy rain and strong wind gusts. Pensacola, Florida, has received the most rain from Gordon with 11.75 inches. Gusts were close to hurricane-force on Dauphin Island, Alabama, as the storm roared ashore.
Motorists are urged to avoid driving across flooded roadways as the road surface may have been weakened or washed away. The water may be much deeper than it appears.
Rainfall heavy enough to cause flooding will extend northward at the end of the week into parts of the central Plains and middle Mississippi Valley, then turn toward portions of the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley this weekend.
As bands of gusty thunderstorms continue on the southern and eastern flank of Gordon, brief spin-up tornadoes and waterspouts can occur with little notice from the lower Mississippi Valley to the central Gulf coast.
People will need to be on guard for rapidly changing weather conditions that could indicate the approach of a tornado from southwestern Alabama to central and southern Mississippi, northeastern Louisiana and southeastern Arkansas into Thursday.
As of early Thursday morning, there has only been one report of a tornado near Santa Rosa, Florida. However, as dry air from the west becomes intertwined with the tropical air in place, favorable conditions for severe thunderstorms and tornadoes may arise due to shifting winds at different levels of the atmosphere.
Even in lieu of a tornado, the thunderstorms can bring strong enough winds to continue the risk of sporadic power outages into Friday as the center of circulation wanders from Mississippi to Arkansas and then the Ohio Valley.
While near-coast tropical conditions will settle down in the short term, the Atlantic basin is forecast to remain active. There is the potential for multiple threats of direct impact over the next couple of weeks from Hurricane Florence and newcomers.
