‘Life-Threatening’ Flooding Now a Possibility Saturday in KY and TN

When the National Weather Service issued a Moderate Risk for Excessive Rainfall on Thursday, that was a first for me. I'm familiar with seeing "Moderate Risk" attached to severe weather forecasts that include strong thunderstorms and tornadoes, but not rainfall. There's "lots of rain" and then there's what we could get under THOSE circumstances.

Well, it just got worse.

High Risk for Excessive Rainfall

Minutes ago, the NWS Weather Prediction Center elevated there warning to a High Risk for Excessive Rainfall on Saturday. Heavy rainfall will begin late tonight and is not expected to let up until sometime Saturday night.

With this event, the Weather Prediction Center is using language I rarely see from the National Weather Service.

I guess I rarely see this kind of language because we rarely get this kind of rainfall. But here we go. By the way, in a meteorological context, convection refers to "the vertical movement of heat and moisture in the atmosphere." In simple terms, warm air rises because it's less dense and cool air sinks because it's more dense.

The National Weather Service had already issued a Flood Warning, but it has been extended to include the Ohio River at Newburgh Dam, Mount Vernon, J.T. Myers Dam,   Shawneetown, and Olmsted Lock and Dam.

Also, by Sunday morning, the National Weather Service indicates the rain will end with some snow.

We're getting it all this winter.