Heavy rain is back across the Southeast on Thursday, dropping more precipitation over swollen rivers and flooded communities that are already saturated after constant rounds of rain over the past two weeks.
The National Weather Service has issued flash flood watches and flood warnings for 14 million people from northeast Louisiana through central Georgia. In these areas, an additional 1-1½ inches of rain could fall through Thursday night.
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Nearly 150 river gauges remained above flood stage Thursday morning, with this number expected to increase due to the additional rainfall. Rivers are expected to stay high through next week, as all the water slowly drains downstream toward the Gulf of Mexico.
As a batch of rainfall moves east Thursday, it will clash with cold arctic air during the afternoon and evening hours and switch to snow that could fall from eastern Tennessee, to northern South Carolina, much of North Carolina and up through southern Virginia. For cities such as Charlotte and Raleigh, the switch to snow just before or during the Thursday evening rush hour could cause travel issues.
About 1-3 inches of snow is possible from eastern Tennessee through North Carolina and up through southeastern Virginia. Locally higher amounts are possible in some areas.
For this wintry potential, the weather service has issued winter weather alerts for 15 million people across northeast Georgia, central Tennessee, northern South Carolina, all of North Carolina and southern Virginia.
Warm ground temperatures could initially prevent snow from sticking, which could impact snow totals. The exact timing of the switch from rain to snow will also influence total snow accumulation. The snow will last overnight Thursday into early Friday morning, but be finished just after sunrise Friday.
The last time Charlotte, Raleigh and Norfolk picked up 1 inch or more of snow was 2018.
The cold air that will play a role in Thursday’s Mid-Atlantic snow is part of an arctic air mass engulfing much of the eastern half of the continental United States. Wind chill alerts are up for parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa for wind chills as cold as 35 degrees below zero. Highs Thursday will be 10-25 degrees below average for nearly everyone east of the Rockies. The only exception is the Florida Peninsula. These below-average temperatures will last through Friday, before temperatures rebound over the weekend.