West Palm Beach, FLA. (WPEC) — As one of the busiest travel periods of the year arrives, a series of powerful weather systems will affect major U.S. travel corridors, from Southern California to Atlanta, Chicago, and New York, bringing heavy rain, scattered flooding, early-week thunderstorms, and late-week snow.
Weekend: Flash Flood Risk in Southern California and the Desert Southwest
Travelers heading out early this weekend should prepare for significant weather impacts across Southern California, western Arizona, and southern Nevada. Two back-to-back Pacific systems are expected to bring heavy rain and flash flooding through Saturday.
The first storm, already pushing rain across the Los Angeles region, will weaken as it reaches shore, but it will raise the flood risk, particularly in burn scars and urban areas. A second, fast-developing system follows close behind and may even take on subtropical characteristics as it approaches Baja California on Saturday. While its heaviest rain should remain in Mexico, outer bands of showers and thunderstorms will spread into Arizona and New Mexico late Saturday into Sunday, with wet mountain snow possible at higher elevations.
The wet pattern continues farther east as well. A low moving out of the central Plains will maintain heavy rain and thunderstorms across the ArkLaTex on Friday, with a flash flood threat near Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW) and Little Rock (LIT), before sending a broad shield of lighter rain toward the Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeast through Saturday. Showers will likely affect airports including Atlanta (ATL), Charlotte (CLT), Cincinnati (CVG), and Washington, D.C. (DCA/IAD).
Record Warmth Along the Gulf Coast and Southeast
Despite the storminess, truly cold air remains locked in Canada. Arctic air will be absent from the Lower 48, allowing temperatures across much of the U.S. to run above average into the weekend…