Flooding rain is expected to threaten millions of people across large parts of the country over the weekend and into next week.
The pattern of potentially-dangerous deluges starts Friday, with flood watches issued in the Southwest, Intermountain West and Midwest regions.
Similar conditions are expected into Monday and Tuesday due to the intensifying super El Niño.
The climate pattern has led to record-warm Pacific waters that are loading the atmosphere with more moisture, meteorologist Ben Noll wrote in The Washington Post. Climate change is adding to the extremes.
“And relatedly, storms will probably grow more frequent as winter nears, with elevated risks for flooding and severe weather, especially across the southern tier of states,” he cautioned.
The Intermountain West and Southwest
Heavy rainfall is expected over burn scars in Idaho and Montana through Friday night. Flooding can be a problem around burn scars because the scorched ground doesn’t have the ability to absorb the water.
That’s led to worsened flooding events in wildfire-stricken New Mexico and California in recent years. New Mexico and the Four Corners region may see more moisture next week as a storm pushes into western Mexico.
Three people were killed Wednesday, including a child, after being swept away in floodwaters on the Navajo Nation.
And three friends died earlier following August flash floods at Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park following July flash floods that forced water rescues in Texas.
The Midwest
The Upper Midwest could see heavy rain leading to flash flooding Friday, federal forecasters warned. “A Slight Risk is in place for portions of Montana and from the Dakotas into Minnesota and Iowa,” the National Weather Service wrote on X.
By Saturday, the flooding threat focuses eastward, toward the Great Lakes states.
Downpours could drench a zone from Nebraska to Michigan. But areas near the Rockies, from Colorado to Montana, could also see impacts.
Colorado forecasters said the Boulder area could see scattered thunderstorms on Friday, as well.
“Higher coverage and intensity is expected come Saturday,” the National Weather Service’s office in Boulder posted on X.
The East
Along the East Coast, showers could plague city-dwellers from Boston into New York, Washington, D.C., Virginia and the Carolinas into next week.
The National Weather Service office in Wakefield, Virginia, around three hours south of the nation’s capital, said a cold front would bring a chance of storms Friday evening and into Saturday morning.
“Staying dry for most of Sun before rain chances return late Sun-Mon as a more unsettled weather pattern moves in,” the office said on X. “If you like the warm/dry weather, enjoy it now because changes are afoot!”
A severe thunderstorm warning was issued Friday in Raleigh, North Carolina, as Charleston, South Carolina, sees one more warm day before a wet Saturday.
