The first named storm of the hurricane season weakened Wednesday night, but forecasters warned that it still posed a threat of massive amounts of rain and continued flash flooding.<\/p>\n
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The heavy rain and flood risk is due to Tropical Storm Arthur, which formed off Texas on Wednesday morning. Storms get names once their wind speeds reach or exceed 39 mph. <\/p>\n
By around 10 p.m. CT, the storm had degenerated to a low pressure area \u2014 but the National Weather Service warned that \u201clife-threatening flooding\u201d was expected to continue in the southeastern U.S.<\/p>\n
Around 5 to 10 inches of rain could fall in parts of Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana, with as much as 20 inches in some areas, the National Hurricane Center said Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
Brazoria County, on the Texas Gulf Coast south of Houston, recorded 55 mph winds Wednesday morning as the tropical storm moved through, according to the weather service.<\/p>\n
\u201cHeavy rainfall and life-threatening flash flooding remain the primary hazard with this system,\u201d forecasters said Wednesday morning<\/a>. <\/p>\n The highest flash flood potential over the next three days stretches from Lake Charles, Louisiana, to Montgomery, Alabama, with the highest rainfall totals expected near Mobile, Alabama, according to the National Hurricane Center<\/a>. <\/p>\n Zachary Handlos, an atmospheric scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said the potential for flash flooding will be determined by how quickly the storm moves through the region. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat it comes down to is, is the rainfall going to park itself or become stationary over any of these locations?\u201d Handlos said. \u201cThat is a little harder to predict.\u201d<\/p>\n Parts of Texas are already dealing with severe rain. On Monday, Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration<\/a> for 101 counties due to severe storms. <\/p>\n Before this month, Handlos said, large parts of the Southeast, like northwest Mississippi and Louisiana, had been dealing with a prolonged drought. Recent rain has helped quench the dryness, but it could also prime the region for flooding as Arthur moves through.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter going through most of March, April and some of May with almost no precipitation, things have kind of switched,\u201d Handlos said. <\/p>\n \u201cIf you have more saturated soils or regions where there\u2019s water that\u2019s pooling up and maybe not drying out fast enough, now you\u2019re just dumping an additional amount of moisture on top of this, which can lead to localized flooding,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n Houston and Atlanta are both hosting World Cup games amid the wet weather. Houston canceled its FIFA Fan Festival on Monday<\/a> because of rain and opened with shorter hours on Tuesday. Handlos said he did not expect major issues with the games themselves, though.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a match right now in Houston. I think they\u2019re west of the worst of it, in terms of impacts,\u201d Handlos said. \u201cIn Atlanta, I think the worst-case scenarios are probably that people are gonna get wet, there might be some minor flooding, and if anyone\u2019s in a car driving, just get ready to get stuck in traffic.\u201d <\/p>\n Arthur is the first storm in what is expected to be a relatively mild hurricane season<\/a>. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasters predicted in May that the season will feature just three to six hurricanes (storms are considered hurricanes once winds reach 74 mph) and eight to 14 named tropical storms.<\/p>\n