20 hours ago
6
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
Potentially “catastrophic” flash and river flooding is expected to continue as rain pummels the Central U.S. through Saturday, with the risk of more tornadoes.
Precipitation intensity
Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration via Iowa State University. Note: All times are Central. By William B. Davis
- April 3, 2025Updated 4:33 p.m. ET
After more than two dozen tornadoes and flooding rains pummeled the central United States on Wednesday night, the region was braced on Thursday for more days of significant rainfall that forecasters said would last through the weekend.
The amount of rain and the high-end flash floods it was likely to cause had meteorologists calling the situation potentially “catastrophic.” The storm system is parked over a stretch of the country from Texas through the northeast, with the most intense and potentially historic rain around Arkansas and Tennessee.
“We are pretty worried, about as worried as you can get,” said Jimmy Barham, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Little Rock, Ark.
Here are the key things to know:
The rain is forecast to persist day after day, with totals well over a foot.
While the tornado risk was highest on Wednesday, the potential for severe storms that could produce tornadoes will be present through the weekend, primarily in Arkansas and other states across the Deep South.
The rain falling in the Northeast on Thursday is connected to the same system, which stretches back to Texas.
Outlooks for high-risk excessive rain — like what is forecast for the Central United States on Thursday and Saturday — are a big deal. Nearly 83 percent of flood-related damage occurs on days when a high risk has been predicted.
“Last night we had two to six inches of rainfall,” Ashton Robinson Cook, a meteorologist at the Weather Prediction Center, said on Thursday morning. Going forward, three-day totals are likely to reach between six and 12 inches, on top of what has already fallen over Arkansas, southwestern Virginia, western Kentucky and western Tennessee.
These amounts are the most likely outcome, bringing total accumulations, including yesterday’s rainfall, to nearly 15 inches. It is possible that some places in this region could receive another foot of rainfall, which would be devastating, and the best case is that these same areas only get four more inches, which would still lead to floods.
“We’re in a persistent pattern where there’s plenty of energy coming in from the Western U.S. and an abundant source of moisture across the southern U.S. that’s kind of interacting with repeat rounds of thunderstorms,” Dr. Robinson Cook said.
