Flash flood watch already in place for Wednesday-Sunday

The National Weather Service has issued an unprecedented flash flood watch beginning Wednesday afternoon all the way through Sunday morning from Texas to Ohio, and including our entire region.

Multiple rounds of locally heavy rainfall over several days will result in extreme and possibly historic forecast amounts of rain that will cause the risk of flash flooding and then extended flooding to rise markedly.

Paducah meteorologists have posted that they have no recollection of ever having 8-12 inches of rain in an explicit forecast for any storm system over the 23 years the office has been producing gridded rainfall forecasts.  

Flash flooding and areal flooding caused by the excessive rainfall is expected. Preliminary projections of up to 1 foot of total rainfall over parts of the area is not out of the question.

Excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and especially low-lying and flood-prone locations. Creeks and streams may rise out of their banks.

Meteorologists add that there may be some breaks develop in the four-day rain period that could mitigate some of the flooding somewhat, but those can't be pinned down yet.