There were tornado warnings near Memphis, Tennessee, and the Missouri cities of Joplin and Columbia — merely the opening acts of what forecasters expect will be a more intense period of violent weather later Wednesday, as daytime heating combines with an unstable atmosphere, strong wind shear and abundant moisture streaming into the nation's midsection from the Gulf.
The potent storm system will bring “significant, life-threatening flash flooding” starting Wednesday and continuing each day through Saturday, the National Weather Service said.
With more than a foot (30 centimeters) of rain possible over the next four days, the prolonged deluge “is an event that happens once in a generation to once in a lifetime,” the weather service said in one of its flood warnings. “Historic rainfall totals and impacts are possible.”
The flood fears come as residents in parts of Michigan continued to dig out from a weekend ice storm.
Floods could inundate towns, sweep cars away
Thunderstorms with multiple rounds of heavy rain were forecast in parts of Texas, the lower Mississippi Valley, and the Ohio Valley beginning midweek and lasting through Saturday. Forecasters warned the storms could track over the same areas repeatedly and produce dangerous flash floods capable of sweeping cars away.
