Southern US braces for heavy rains and tornado threat as Francine moves inland

The risk to lives and property is not over with Francine as the tropical rainstorm will bring dangers associated with flooding, falling trees and tornadoes into Friday.

As Francine presses well inland over the southern United States, risks to lives and property will continue into the end of the week as rain pours down and severe thunderstorms erupt. AccuWeather meteorologists warn of dangers from flooding, strong wind gusts and tornadoes.

"Francine will continue to lose wind energy as it spends the remainder of its life over land," AccuWeather Lead Hurricane Expert Alex DaSilva said, "However, as it transitions to a tropical rainstorm, it will still be very capable of producing life-threatening conditions."

The most sudden of these dangers will be from severe thunderstorms that can produce tornadoes.

A sweep of dry air from the west is often a key ingredient for rotating thunderstorms that can trigger tornadoes, and that threat will expand from the central Gulf coast to areas as far north as Tennessee and as far east as Georgia and northern Florida into Thursday night.

Waterspouts are also possible along the northeastern Gulf coast into Friday.

Aside from tornadoes and waterspouts, the strong wind gusts associated with Francine will tend to become more isolated into Friday. Still, towering showers and thunderstorms can drag gusts down to the ground, which can be strong enough to break tree limbs and trigger power outages through much of Mississippi and Alabama into Thursday night.

Drenching rainfall from Francine will have a more widespread impact. Some of the rain will be beneficial, as much of the south-central region, the interior Southeast and part of the Midwest have been experiencing increasing dryness and drought conditions during the latter part of the summer.

Bands of excessive rain are likely to occur, and many inches of rain may pour down through Friday and beyond. Because Francine is forecast to stall due to high pressure and a sea of dry air to the north, steering breezes of its leftover moisture will tend to get strung out in a narrow zone for many hundreds of miles in a northwest-to-south fashion.

A broad region where 1-4 inches of rain will fall will extend northward into the middle Mississippi and lower Ohio valleys with a pocket where 4-8 inches of rain will fall with locally higher amounts centered on the state of Mississippi. This is enough rain to lead to flooding in low-lying and urban areas as well as along small streams and secondary rivers.

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Motorists should be extra cautious when driving along secondary roads that could be subject to rising water or blocked by falling trees and power lines.

As this runoff works downstream, water levels will rise on the Tennessee, Ohio and lower Mississippi rivers. Many segments of the Mississippi and Ohio are at very low levels, which is creating problems for tub and barge operations, so a rise in water levels there would be beneficial.

Moisture from Francine will become intertwined with a budding area of moisture along the Carolina coast associated with a future tropical rainstorm and possibly a depression or full-fledged tropical storm.

Moisture flowing off the Atlantic Ocean ahead of the future tropical rainstorm could result in many inches of rain falling farther to the east than Francine produced. Exactly where this narrow band of excessive rain sets up is critical, as life-threatening flash flooding could evolve days after Francine's demise.

Depending on its exact orientation, the band of torrential rain and flooding could affect some of the major metro areas, including Charlotte, North Carolina; Greenville, South Carolina; Chatanooga, Tennessee; Huntsville, Alabama; and Atlanta. However, only a couple of these areas would likely bear the brunt of the heaviest and most problematic rainfall.

Where the ground becomes saturated, any sudden gusts of wind can cause poorly-rooted trees to topple over.

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