• Heavy Rain/Flooding AL/MS

    From Mike Powell@618:250/1 to All on Tue Apr 22 08:10:00 2025
    AWUS01 KWNH 221159
    FFGMPD
    TNZ000-ALZ000-MSZ000-221800-

    Mesoscale Precipitation Discussion 0157
    NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD
    758 AM EDT Tue Apr 22 2025

    Areas affected...portions of north-central AL and northeast MS

    Concerning...Heavy rainfall...Flash flooding possible

    Valid 221200Z - 221800Z

    Summary...Additional scattered totals of 2-4" are likely and may
    overlap accumulations of 2-3" from early this morning/overnight.
    Isolated to scattered instances of flash flooding are possible.

    Discussion...Convection has been percolating over the past several
    hours over northwestern AL into far northeast MS, in the vicinity
    of a weak, stalling surface front and low pressure. While not
    overly impressive synoptically, a weak shortwave aloft is noted
    with an associated 50-60 kt (mini) jet streak, providing just
    enough divergence aloft to support sustained convection (with 0-6
    km shear of only about ~20 kts). Meanwhile, the low-levels are
    becoming increasingly supportive of sustaining convection as well,
    as weak 925-850 mb moisture transport has prevented convection
    from becoming outflow dominate with 3-hr change in ML CAPE of
    50-150 J/kg (resulting in current ML CAPE of 250-750 J/kg).
    Precipitable water of 1.5" (above the 90th percentile, per BMX
    sounding climatology) has supported occasional rainfall rates to
    1.0-1.5"/hr (per MRMS estimates, as the peak rainfall rates have
    occurred in observation sparse areas).

    Going forward, there's a good chance that some of the recent
    trends of backbuilding convection will continue, as upwind
    propagation vectors in the vicinity of the convection are 5 kts or
    less (taking into account the mean storm flow and opposite flow of
    the 850 mb jet). In addition, storm motions are also relatively
    slow (10-15 kts), so the combination of backbuilding and
    appreciable individual cell residence time may occasionally
    support hourly rates/totals on the order of 2-3"/hr. Overall the
    00z/06z CAMs are struggling with the depiction of convection in
    the region, though the 00z FV3 is an outlier in depicting 2-4"
    totals through 15-18z (though this may be displaced too far
    south). More recent HRRR runs (since 06z) are doing a better job
    depicting convection in the correct location, though still
    probably a bit too weak given the trends (only showing highly
    isolated totals of 2"+). Thinking additional scattered totals of
    2-4" are likely through 18z, and much of this could occur over
    areas that have already seen 2-3" this morning. Given that the
    realization of any flash flooding is dependent on localized
    training of convection with overall weak forcing and relatively
    high uncertainty, isolated to scattered flash flooding is
    considered possible.

    Churchill

    ATTN...WFO...BMX...HUN...JAN...MEG...

    ATTN...RFC...LMRFC...SERFC...NWC...

    LAT...LON 35158589 34028607 33268695 32578762 32408843
    32518937 33068950 33568943 34238915 34708760

    $$
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