- The leftover moisture from a hurricane will bring showers and storms to the Central U.S.
- Rain likely won’t be heavy, but a severe thunderstorm is possible.
- The moisture will bring some modest drought relief to the Plains.
Much needed drought relief in the Central U.S. may come soon from an unlikely source: the remnants of Hurricane Norma.
No – a hurricane is not coming to the Lower 48 anytime soon.
Instead, some deeper tropical moisture will be pulled northward into the region along with some leftover spin provided by Norma itself.
If you’re in New Mexico or Texas, you’ve already been seeing Norma’s cloud cover overhead this weekend.
Norma is currently still a robust tropical cyclone near northern Mexico, but its winds and waves will die down over the next day or two. Its moisture, though, will continue to stream northeastward this week.
A deep upper-level trough will dig southward across the Southwest by Monday, which will help pull that moisture into the Southern Plains, then eventually parts of the Midwest by the middle of the week.
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Parts of West Texas and Oklahoma stand the best chance at some elevated rainfall totals. Two to perhaps four inches of rain could fall in this zone. More than an inch of rain is likely from eastern New Mexico to western Missouri through Thursday.
And this may not be the end of the wetter weather. Computer model guidance suggests that disturbed weather could continue into the following week, but those details will need to be figured out in the coming days.
The rainfall should be beneficial for most spots. Moderate to exceptional drought continues in pockets from Texas to Iowa. Some in this swath are experiencing a 6-12-inch deficit so far this year.
A few thunderstorms could result as this plays out, particularly in Texas and the Midwest. A severe thunderstorm or two are also possible in parts of Iowa, Minnesota or Wisconsin on Tuesday.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
