Helene’s onslaught of rain isn’t over yet.
The storm swiftly moved inland after making landfall late Thursday night, carving a path of fallen timber from the Gulf Coast into the Appalachians and bringing flooding rains that overtopped river banks and caused destructive landslides. Helene weakened to a tropical depression on Friday afternoon, but its effects may linger through the weekend as it stalls over central Tennessee.
Forecasters said early Friday that Helene’s main circulation was dissipating, but that the moisture and heavy rain associated with it were not. The Blue Ridge Mountains are oriented just right, so the tropical moisture is being pushed against them, forced to rise and rung out like a wet towel over the high terrain.
Through Friday evening and into Saturday, though, the rain should begin to subside in the southern Appalachians, from south to north as the storm moves away. There is at least some risk, though, that lingering showers could wrap back around overnight and reinvigorate flooding concerns.
As the storm shifts west, it will interact with another weather pattern, and its remnants will spin over Tennessee into the weekend.
These two weather patterns have already brought at least some risk for flooding across Tennessee on Friday, which will linger into Saturday morning. Forecasters said the flooding from the rain that falls from the remnants of Helene here would be because of the long duration, and that it would have less to do with how much falls in a given hour.
On Saturday, the excessive rainfall threat from Helene will decrease, though heavier rain may develop over parts of the Ohio Valley.
On Sunday, the remnant energy of Helene will linger. The current forecast doesn’t show much rainfall, but even a small amount could exacerbate flooding concerns across the region.
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