UPDATE: Two months worth of rain falls in Jackson over the weekend; cuts into deficit
UPDATE: Flash Flood Watch issued for parts of Central and Southern Mississippi
Scattered rain and thunderstorms throughout the day across parts of Mississippi yielded some hefty rainfall totals including in the capital city, where the heaviest single day rainfall in four months occurred.
Nearly one and three quarters of an inch of rain (1.73″) fell at the Jackson International Airport, most of which occurred within a two hour period from 2-4 pm CDT Saturday afternoon. This set a new daily record for rainfall, breaking the previous record of 1.31 inches on July 23, 1949.
This was the most rainfall in a day across parts of Jackson since March 29th, when there was also 1.73 inches of rain.
The excessive rainfall in a short period of time in Jackson and other parts of the metro, prompted the National Weather Service to issue a Flash Flood Warning across much of the area with some roads reported temporarily under water in parts of Rankin and Madison Counties.
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JACKSON,MS
313 PM CDT SAT JUL 23 2011THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN JACKSON HAS ISSUED A FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR NORTHEASTERN HINDS COUNTY INCLUDING THE CITIES OF JACKSON AND CLINTON; SOUTHERN MADISON COUNTY INCLUDING THE CITIES OF RIDGELAND, MADISON AND CANTON; NORTHERN RANKIN COUNTY INCLUDING THE CITIES OF RICHLAND, PEARL, FLOWOOD AND BRANDON; SCOTT COUNTY INCLUDING THE CITIES OF HARPERVILLE, MORTON AND FOREST
* UNTIL 515 PM CDT
* AT 313 PM CDT, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR DETECTED THUNDERSTORMS PRODUCING VERY HEAVY RAIN ALONG A LINE EXTENDING FROM HARPERVILLE TO JACKSON.
THE STORMS WERE NEARLY STATIONARY. ESTIMATED RADAR RAINFALL AMOUNTS ON THE ORDER OF ONE TO THREE INCHES HAVE OCCURRED IN THE PAST TWO HOURS ACROSS MUCH OF THE WARNED AREA.
* OTHER LOCATIONS IN THE WARNING INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO LEESBURG, PULASKI, FORKVILLE, BRANCH, HILLSBORO, STEELE AND PELAHATCHIE
VERY HEAVY RAINFALL WILL CONTINUE OVER THE WARNED AREA FOR THE NEXT HOUR WITH AN ADDITIONAL ONE TO THREE INCHES POSSIBLE.
Other areas of the state including parts of Attala, Grenada, Carroll, Montgomery and Pike Counties were also placed under Flash Flood Warnings during the day as a result of excessive rainfall from slow moving thunderstorms.
Radar estimates of five to seven inches of rainfall was recorded across parts of Attala and Montgomery Counties Saturday morning, resulting in numerous flood problems.
The rainfall in Jackson was much needed as the city was running a deficit of over 11 inches for the year and nearly two and a half inches for the month, prior to this heavy rainfall event and more rain is possible in the days ahead.
LIVE MISSISSIPPI WEATHER/CAMERAS
High moisture levels combined with a trough or elongated area of relatively low atmospheric pressure over the region will continue to contribute to good chances of rainfall through the remainder of the weekend.
And with such a moisture-latent airmass in place, any thunderstorms that develop will be capable of producing excessive rainfall and flooding as was the case on Saturday across parts of the state.
