Serious Flooding in the South from Slow-Moving System - It's a Huge Cyclone!

A significant flood threat is unfolding across the south-central states. Flooding began Monday night and early Tuesday in Texas, and spread into Louisiana Tuesday into early Wednesday, with numerous roads closed across the region due to high water. Several water rescues were reported. The worst of the flooding appears to be around Natchitoches, La., where local officials reported water entering homes early Wednesday. The National Weather Service declared a "flash flood emergency" for Natchitoches Parish and strongly discouraged travel in the area. One rain gauge in the parish reported over 10 inches of rain in 24 hours. The torrential downpours continue to spread slowly eastward Wednesday into the lower Mississippi Valley. Larger cities in the threat zone include New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Jackson, Miss.

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OK. I was checking out my local weather and this was the highlighted story from The Weather Channel. So I did my usual thing and checked their awesome weather in motion map out. Not only does it have a viewpoint of the past 6 hours, but what is forecasted for the next six.

I backed out the viewer to include the whole system and that's when I noticed. The entire system is a cyclone. The eye of the storm is located currently located over Ardmore, Oklahoma, just north of the Texas state line. I also pulled up NOAA's 24 hour weather satellite loop to see it there.

Unfortuantely, I have no ability with the video to post it, but here is the link to the NOAA Site and to the Weather Channel Site.

Now, I am not trying to propagate some claim that the rotation of this system is a HUGE deal or be a fearmongerer, but it is definitely something to take note of. Most of our over land developing systems are linear in progression. I live on the Gulf Coast and am on the constant watch for hurricanes during the season so this caught my eye, seeing that it looks just like a hurricane. But massive. Nearly the size of the Gulf of Mexico, actually.

Hopefully, this weather system just gives the land a good drink of water and behaves like a good little weather pattern.

Everyone stay safe out there.

couple days ago



tis interesting to see that big of a swirl...horrible how long that storm has stayed over that area!

you can see it on the NATIONAL WEATHER MOSAIC, too

The cyclonic action you're seeing is very typical of synoptic scale low pressure systems. This one is very well defined at the moment, and is quite strong. It's nothing to be overly concerned about as it is typical of these storms to create the type of weather we're seeing in the southern region. The frontal boundary to the Eastern side of the system is showing typical signs of severe weather development that are expected when dealing with cooler driving air combining with warm air ahead of the frontal boundary. The eastern side of the system is behaving like a typical frontal boundary, and the cyclonic action on the western side is just a little stronger than you might normally see. Often times you may not see such defined rotation, but in all honesty I don't think the rotation you can see on this current system isn't out of the ordinary.

This is the type of system that could potentially develop in to a really intense storm, but it seems to be average as far as intensity and size go. We've had much worse ones previously this year, so I wouldn't let the cloud patterns worry you as it currently sits. If you're in the affected areas simply use some caution and keep an eye on the sky,

reply to post by Mapkar


Thank You Mapkar! Like I said, I was just seeing the rotation and it threw me. Now I know I have just been oblivious before.

And thank you IceKohld. I looked for any prior threads on the rotationand completely missed that one. I have to just look through threads, because the search function never loads for me, no matter what browser I use.

I did want to bring the weather itself to the attention of people in the path of the storm as well. Flash flooding and driving down roads do not mix at times. So just be careful out there for any of us who might have to get out in this.

It's a long thin slow moving storm. It's not a hurricane, however it left damage here that resembles a cat 1. Down trees and power lines all over the coastal area where I am. Signs of small twisters cutting trees in half, and the wind was scary! Pretty intense for such a small storm. It's past us now though. Whew!

This storm came into far west Texas Sunday night from out of the Pacific. The frontal boundary was very unusual for out here (but according to the local weather guy on TV, not unusual for the east coast). It was a long, very thin line of thunderstorms carrying hail and a lot of lightning. It knocked out power to many parts of Lubbock and caused an oil fire when an oil tank was struck by lightning. As it went east, it formed into something a little more nasty, and the southern end had some supercells, one which spawned a tornado outside of San Antonio. My friends in the DFW area were freaking out and scared, because by the time it got out there, this storm had some teeth to it.

The last of it is finally rotating out of west Texas this afternoon. It is not your typical low pressure system by any means, and I have been watching weather in Texas for 11 years. It is slow-moving and has plenty of punch to it. It is also somewhat larger than many of the low pressure systems that come through down here. We didn't get much rain out of it, but since we are in a severe drought, any rain at all was welcome. The rain farther east was excessive and produced flash-flooding. All it needs is gulf moisture to feed it, and the states further east will get more rain than what they want.

Just another landicane.. nothing to see here.. LOL But seriously, I've seen a lot of these "landicanes" in the past couple years. It is interesting how this one formed though and the size and energy in it is quite impressive too.