United States Weather Battleground This Week Creating Dangerous Storms, Floods

Areas in red in this map of the United States are at risk
for flash flooding over hte next couple, few days. Blue areas
 will get a fair aount of precipitation, with  much lesser
chances of flooding The rain over
New England will mostly hit toward the end of
the week or next weekend. 

A west to east battle zone is under way across the middle of the nation and will basicallly continue all week

To the south of a west to east line across the middle of the country, it's hot and steamy. To the north its not as warm and not as steamy.

A wavy semi-stalled weather front seperates the two, and as little disturbances ride along the front, the feed on the intense humidity from the south.

The result is torrential rains and flash floods that will continue on and off through the week

The worst of it is going on today and tomorrow. Much of Kansas and Missouri is awash in flooding from torrential overnight rains

Wichita, Kansas is a mess, with a lot of water rescues there with stranded motorists yesterday and last night. There also were several overnight water rescues in Columbia, Missouri, for instance.

Wichita picked up 5.72 inches of rain just on Saturday 

The rains are heading east. Flash flood watches are up for parts of Illinois, Indiana, southern Ohio and unfortunately much of West Virginia.

Flash flooding in West Virginia last month.
More scenes like this are possible in West Virginia
and other states over the next couple of days.  

The last thing West Virginia needs is more flash flooding. You might remember back on June 23 huge flash floods in that state killed at least 23 people and destroyed and damaged thousands of homes.

The storms along the front each day could become severe at times, with strong wind gusts the main threat.  

The  boundary between the steamy heat to the south and drier air to the north will sort of drift nofth during the week in the eastern half of the nation and become more diffuse.

That would lessen but not end the chances of flash floods in the Midwest and Mid Atlantic states. The weather pattern would also tend to toss showers and storms into the Northeast, where despite rains in the past few days, could use more precipitation.