Saturday morning thunderstorm/flooding update

 

Throughout the morning and into the afternoon today we will be monitoring a cold front that will slowly be moving through Iowa and Minnesota. Along this cold front, widespread and slow-moving thunderstorms are expected to develop along this front and slowly push east through today and into tomorrow.

Before this front moves in though, we'll start the day with partly cloudy skies while temperatures will once again reach 90 degrees with heat index values approaching 100 degrees as well. By 1-2 p.m. though thunderstorms along this cold front will begin to move in cooling temperatures through the rest of the day.
 

As storms move in this afternoon and into the evening they will carry the potential of severe wind gusts but also heavy rainfall which would lead to flash flooding. Currently the state line is under a slight 2/5 risk for the possibility of scattered severe thunderstorms capable of producing 60+ mph wind gusts. The biggest risk today looks to be heavy rainfall and flooding potential as storms today will be slow moving and will develop very close by to each other (training storms). The Weather Prediction Center has downgraded our risk to a 2/4 slight risk, however rainfall totals today will still support the possibility of flash flooding.

As seen by the Weather Prediction Center's excessive rain outlook, the highest potential for heavy rainfall and flash flooding will remain to our west. Still, flood watches have been issued for the western portions of the state line through Monday with these alerts highlighting the possibility of rainfall totals near 4 inches.

The heaviest rainfall today will arrive by sundown as the cold front slowly moves in. At this time storms will be capable of heavy downpours with nearly an inch per hour rainfall rates. Storms look to gradually weaken into the night but with any storms that do stick around, those will only add to our flooding potential. Scattered thunderstorms will once again be possible heading into tomorrow and depending on which locations see the most coverage in these storms rainfall totals may push 2-4 inches by Sunday night!