2024-01-02 13:28:00
Flood threat increasing along Gulf coast
Rain will break out across south Texas on Tuesday as the area of low pressure begins to take shape. Houston is in for a wet day, with showers likely. The FOX Forecast Center said flash flooding will be possible throughout the day. Winds will also be breezy, topping off with gusts around 20 mph during the day.
NEW ORLEANS – The South will have a soggy start to 2024 with a wet weather pattern setting up over the Gulf Coast states, bringing heavy rain and the potential for flash flooding for Texas early in the week and down to Central Florida by midweek.
A parade of low-pressure systems marching across the U.S. will bring a buffet of active weather from rain to snow across the country. In the South, a system moving over the Gulf states will bring heavy rain to drought-stricken areas needing moisture. However, a lot of rain in a short period will be hard for the dry soil to absorb and may lead to flash flooding.
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The FOX Forecast Center said rain will break out Tuesday across south Texas as the area of low pressure begins to take shape.
Cities, including Houston and Galveston in Texas, are looking at a wet day on Tuesday. Up to 1 inch of rain is forecast for South Texas, with higher amounts of up to 2 inches in isolated areas, including near Corpus Christi.
Flash flooding will be possible throughout the day. Winds will also be breezy, topping off with gusts around 20 mph during the day.
By Wednesday, the area of low pressure will continue its journey east and be located off the coast of New Orleans in Louisiana by early morning, the FOX Forecast Center said. With this shift, the flash flooding threat will extend over a greater area from Lake Charles, Louisiana, down to Tampa, Florida.
“The energy from the West Coast, that low, tracks into the northern Gulf of Mexico, and it kind of gets its second life,” FOX Weather Meteorologist Jane Minar said. “And this warm front is going to be drifted right along the I-10 corridor, shaking up those showers from Lake Charles to New Orleans all the way up through Birmingham, Alabama.”
Heavy rain is forecast in Shreveport, Alexandria and Baton Rouge in Louisiana and Gulfport, Mississippi, on Wednesday, with forecast totals between 1-2 inches.
“It’s going to be real soggy on the Gulf Coast, central Gulf Coast, as we go into the middle part of the week,” Minar said.
On Thursday and Friday, rain will overspread most of Florida and southern Georgia, before moving off into the Atlantic Ocean.
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The South is under various stages of drought, including exceptional drought in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. These areas are in need of moisture, including New Orleans, where the rainfall totals are 16 inches below normal.
“It is going to take a number of storms, not just one, to remove the drought that has unfortunately plagued this area,” Minar said.
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