Flooding rain is expected to threaten hundreds of millions of people across large parts of the country over the weekend and into next week.
asserted
rain → flood → week
The pattern of potentially-dangerous deluges starts Friday, with flood watches issued in the Southwest, Intermountain West and Midwest regions.
asserted
watches → start → regions
Similar conditions are expected into Monday and Tuesday due to the intensifying super El Niño.
asserted
conditions → expect → Niño
The climate pattern has led to record-warm Pacific waters that are loading the atmosphere with more moisture, meteorologist Ben Noll wrote in The Washington Post.
asserted
Noll → lead → Post
Climate change is adding to the extremes.
asserted
change → add → extremes
“And relatedly, storms will probably grow more frequent as winter nears, with elevated risks for flooding and severe weather, especially across the southern tier of states,” he cautioned.
asserted
he → grow → states
The Intermountain West and Southwest
Heavy rainfall is expected over burn scars in Idaho and Montana through Friday night.
asserted
rainfall → expect → night
Flooding can be a problem around burn scars because the scorched ground doesn’t have the ability to absorb the water.
asserted
ground → scorch → water
That’s led to worsened flooding events in wildfire-stricken New Mexico and California in recent years.
asserted
That → lead → years
New Mexico and the Four Corners region may see more moisture next week as a storm pushes into western Mexico.
uncertain
storm → see → Mexico
Three people were killed Wednesday, including a child, after being swept away in floodwaters on the Navajo Nation.
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people → kill → Nation
And three friends died earlier following August flash floods at Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park following July flash floods that forced water rescues in Texas.
asserted
that → die → Texas
The Upper Midwest could see heavy rain leading to flash flooding Friday, federal forecasters warned.
uncertain
forecasters → see → flooding
“A Slight Risk is in place for portions of Montana and from the Dakotas into Minnesota and Iowa,” the National Weather Service wrote on X.
By Saturday
asserted
Service → write → Saturday
, the flooding threat focuses eastward, toward the Great Lakes states.
asserted
threat → focus → states
Downpours could drench a zone from Nebraska to Michigan.
uncertain
Downpours → drench → Michigan
But areas near the Rockies, from Colorado to Montana, could also see impacts.
uncertain
areas → see → impacts
Colorado forecasters said the Boulder area could see scattered thunderstorms on Friday, as well.
uncertain
area → say → Friday
“Higher coverage and intensity is expected come Saturday,” the National Weather Service’s office in Boulder posted on X.
The East
asserted
office → expect → X.
Along the East Coast, showers could plague city-dwellers from Boston into New York, Washington, D.C., Virginia and the Carolinas into next week.
uncertain
showers → plague → week
The National Weather Service office in Wakefield, Virginia, around three hours south of the nation’s capital, said a cold front would bring a chance of storms Friday evening and into Saturday morning.
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front → say → morning
“Staying dry for most of Sun before rain chances return late Sun-Mon as a more unsettled weather pattern moves in,” the office said on X. “If you like the warm/dry weather, enjoy it now because changes are afoot!”
asserted
changes → stay → it
A severe thunderstorm warning was issued Friday in Raleigh, North Carolina, as Charleston, South Carolina, sees one more warm day before a wet Saturday.
asserted
Charleston → issue → Saturday
The Aporia
