More Rounds of Heavy Rain Through Next Week

In the Midwest, heavy rain has been nearly continuous across the south throughout most of the week. More rain is pushing through early Thursday and rounds of additional rain and thunderstorms will move across the region with a system moving through Friday and Saturday. Another big storm is forecast to move through with widespread rain and thunderstorms on Tuesday and Wednesday. Some flooding is and will continue to occur, but drought reduction is very likely on next week’s drought monitor.

In the Northern Plains, some spotty showers have moved through the region this week, but most areas have stayed dry. A system will move through on Thursday and Friday with patchy showers, which may include some areas of accumulating snow. Another system will move through Monday night and Tuesday and should be followed by one more late next week. The region is getting slowly drier, but the coming pattern should be somewhat beneficial.

In the Central and Southern Plains, some showers moved across eastern areas this week, resulting in some areas of moderate rainfall. Another system will move across the region on Thursday and Friday with more widespread showers and thunderstorms, some of which may be severe, especially in the east on Friday. The front may linger across Texas with additional precipitation this weekend. Widespread and growing drought in the region will see some relief, though areas in the west are not forecast to see much rainfall out of this system. However, another system is forecast to move through on Tuesday and Wednesday and may bring some additional heavy rainfall to some areas.

In the Delta, showers have been falling across the far north while isolated showers started to pop up across the south on Wednesday. However, drought is very deep and no impact has been made thus far. However, a front moving through on Saturday is forecast to bring through some widespread, heavy rainfall, but may contain some severe weather. The front may stall out in the region with scattered showers continuing on Sunday and Monday in some areas. Another system is forecast to bring some heavy rain through the region on Wednesday as well. All of the coming precipitation should help to reduce drought to some degree, but precipitation deficits are very large and will take much more rain to do so completely.

In the Southeast, it was drier this week. While rainfall over the weekend helped to reduce drought in a small way on this week’s drought monitor, it is still very widespread across the region. Some patchy showers and thunderstorms will be possible to end the week. Also, a front will move in on Saturday and stall, continuing showers into Monday. But coverage and amounts look scattered and not likely to reduce drought in a meaningful way. A system that moves through next Wednesday and Thursday may have better coverage.

In the Western U.S., a system moved out of the central Rockies early this week after producing some meaningful precipitation there. Another system went through the Pacific Northwest with widespread precipitation as well. None of this had a positive impact on the drought monitor this week as it was either too light or too late to count. A system is exiting on Thursday, but part of that system will slide down into the Southwest where some spotty showers will develop this weekend into Monday. The pattern will be busier over the north next week with multiple disturbances bringing showers through, but precipitation amounts do not look particularly high at the moment.

John Baranick can be reached at john.baranick@dtn.com