Flooding Threat Grows In East

[CaptinCrunch]

Flooding Threat Grows In East
9:30 AM EST, December 10, 2003

With life in the northeast and mid-
Atlantic just beginning to return to
normal after last week`s wintry blast, it
would seem that a warmup and some
rain to speed up the snowmelt would be
eagerly anticipated.

However, this is one case where too
much of good thing can be dangerous.
The heavy rain that is expected to
spread up the eastern seaboard
Wednesday into Thursday will pose a
significant flooding threat in places
where a solid snow pack remains.
Flood watches have been hoisted for
parts of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia,
Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and
New Jersey.

See the graphic in the upper right
corner for details on how much rain is
expected.

The eastern rainfall is part of the same
system that has brought snow and very
cold temperatures to parts of the central
U.S. With this system moving northeast
at a steady clip, steady rainfall will only
last about 12 hours in any given
location along the eastern seaboard.
The storm had already picked up
copious amounts of Gulf moisture, with
WeatherBug live sensors in London
Mills, Illinois and Loretto, Tennessee
both picking up over an inch of rain
from midnight to 9AM EST (8AM CST).
The flooding threat is smaller in the
interior mid-Atlantic from the
Shenandoah Valley to central
Pennsylvania and over interior New
England where cooler temperatures will
tend to hang on during the storm,
allowing the snow pack to asborb much
of the rainfall.

Along with the heavy rain, localized
areas of very dense fog are expected to
form when warmer air moves in over
the snowpack in the mid-Atlantic, Ohio
Valley and northeast.

[JCT777]

Lots of rain + melting snow = flooding potential!