More heavy rain ahead Saturday
This week is severe weather awareness week in Ohio and Michigan. Meteorologist Ryan Wichman breaks down the amount of rain expected on Saturday.
What to expect
Don’t expect our wet stretch of weather to end before the weekend. The weather pattern is waterlogged for the southern Great Lakes through at least Saturday morning. This is because of a stalled out-front sitting across the Midwest and ‘waves’ of energy riding across the boundary.
It’s a classic spring set-up which leads to very wet weather. You can think of the boundary between cooler air to the north and warmer air to the south as a train track and the ‘waves’ of energy as locomotives. Each train brings with it more showers and downpours. Until the boundary is moved the chances for rain will exist every day or two.
It looks like this pattern will break up some by Sunday – which is the next completely dry day on our 10-day forecast.There will be additional chances for rain next week but right now, it doesn’t appear to be as constant as this week.
Severe threat is south
This week is severe weather awareness week in Ohio and Michigan. Thankfully Mother Nature isn’t timing up any strong or severe thunderstorms to mark the yearly spring preparation. Our rain will be annoying to many and will lead, of course, to a rise in the ditches and rivers but at this point, no true severe weather is expected locally.
Locations further south in Ohio and Indiana, especially toward Kentucky, could be more in line for the stronger storms which – is typical for this time of the year. The peak for severe weather season in northwest Ohio is May - July, with damaging straight-line winds produced by thunderstorms being the biggest threat annually.
Speaking of severe weather, did you see the tornado reports from the Los Angeles region on Wednesday? Certainly, a rare event there being the first tornado reports from Los Angeles in 40 years! Preliminary reports are indicating wind speeds may have reached 100 mph – which would be an EF-1 on the Enhanced Fujita scale.
Rain amounts
We have talked a lot lately about this being one of the wettest starts to a year in Toledo history. With nearly 11 inches of rainfall recorded already, we are running more than four inches above normal through the middle of March. Thankfully, Saturday’s system does appear to be quick moving which will help keep the heavy rainfall totals in check.
To our south in southern Ohio and Indiana – all the way to Tennessee, there have been flood watches posted. In those regions, rainfall totals of over two inches are possible – which will swell local rivers. In northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan, the rainfall amounts will be between a quarter and a half inch. The heaviest rain on Saturday will fall during the morning hours and quickly drying out during the afternoon and evening.