Rainfall Summary From Past 48 Hours; More to Come?

Lead Forecaster Daniel Crawley

Good Tuesday morning to everyone, it has been a very active last 48 hours across the Western Carolinas. Over the weekend our forecast team gave a head’s up on the potential of significant rainfall across the region and that has verified to this point. A non-tropical feature moved northeast from the Gulf Coast toward the Southern Appalachians and it produced abundant rainfall on Monday.

We also had a severe weather threat that came along with the heavy rain due to surface instability, a wedge boundary and strengthening flow at the 850mb level (5,000 ft). There was a tornado that touched down near Chesnee South Carolina yesterday evening which is just minutes away from the NC/SC State Line with Rutherford County. Survey crews will examine the damage later on to see how strong the tornado was.

The rotation and debris signature aloft made it into extreme Southern Rutherford County and Southwest Cleveland County but we have yet to receive any reports indicative of a tornado touchdown in those locations.

The rainfall was the main story for us in the coverage area. It all started Sunday afternoon with a line of strong to severe thunderstorms that trained along the Interstate 40 Cooridor dumping heavy rain and then on Monday as the non-tropical feature approached, upslope flow brought widespread rainfall.

These maps below are from CoCoRaHS observers in the coverage area. The amounts cover a 48 hour period…

More Rain Chances In The Offering?…

While the significant rain has been very beneficial to drought areas, it appears that we are only going to see a brief drying spell. Clouds are going to hang tough for Tuesday so that may limit sunshine. Wednesday will be a bit warmer but already organizing by then will be the next upper level feature across the Plains. This will impact our weather by Thursday…

Deep southerly flow will form on Thursday and the expectations are for more locally heavy rainfall to occur, starting first along the Eastern Escarpment and then spilling over into locations east of the mountains by Thursday night. Weather Prediction Center has highlighted the Southern Appalachians for a Slight Risk of Excessive Rainfall and a Marginal Risk for the rest of the coverage area.

Precipitation should end by Friday morning and that will lead to a much nicer Memorial Day Weekend across the region.