Flooding threatens Triangle as more rain is expected in soaked region, forecast says
More rain is headed for the already-soaked Triangle this week, forecasters say.
The region could see moderate to heavy rainfall starting Wednesday and into Thursday, according to the National Weather Service’s Raleigh office. A hazardous weather outlook for central North Carolina, including counties in the Triangle, says flooding is possible in areas with poor drainage and in already-elevated creeks and streams.
On Wednesday and Wednesday night, the heaviest rain should be south of the Triangle, but a shift could bring the worst of it over the area, Kathleen Carroll, a meteorologist with the NWS’s Raleigh office, told McClatchy News.
Going forward, showers and thunderstorms could bring heavy local rainfall and potentially flash flooding, she said.
The Triangle could see up to 1.5 inches of rain between Wednesday and Thursday morning, with locally higher amounts possible.
This comes as the region is already saturated from rainfall in the last week.
A gauge at Raleigh-Durham International Airport shows the area has had 3.38 inches of rain in May, which is more than the normal amount for the month. The normal for May is 3.27 inches, according to Carroll.
Most of it has come since May 17, Carroll told McClatchy. Prior to that, only 0.09 inches of rain had been recorded.
Flooding is possible as the already-saturated ground can’t hold much more water, Carroll says. She also said it’s important to be careful around creeks and streams, as they’re already “running high.”
Eastern North Carolina is also expected to get some wet weather this week as another tropical system is forecast to bring rain, rough seas and potential flooding to the Southeast, McClatchy News reports.
