A series of severe thunderstorms brought widespread flooding to New Orleans on Monday, overwhelming roads and prompting flash flood warnings. Drivers struggled as heavy rain poured across the city for hours, particularly in eastern areas.
“It’s an absolute mess out there across portions of Gretna, New Orleans, the Lower 9th and Arabi,” the National Weather Service in New Orleans said on X, referencing areas in and around the city. “Do not drive around. It’s near impossible to see where some roads end and canals begin.”
The storms were fueled by a persistent flow of warm, moisture-laden air from the Gulf of Mexico interacting with a front across the Southeast. This setup resulted in an unstable atmosphere that allowed storms to linger over the city and pound it with heavy rain.
“Thunderstorms sat over New Orleans for a few hours on Monday afternoon,” said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center. “The east side of the downtown seemed to get hit the hardest.”
Rain gauges recorded between four and seven inches of rain, with the highest totals on the east side. The average rainfall in New Orleans for the month of April is 5.22 inches.
“Had it occurred 20 miles farther south or east or west, it likely wouldn’t have had the same amount of impact,” Mr. Chenard said. “The storms just persisted long enough, for a couple of hours, to get some of those high totals.”
Flash flooding remains a concern in the coming days in other parts of the United States, and the Weather Prediction Center said parts of the South and the Midwest were under a marginal risk of excessive rainfall through Friday. Up to two inches of rainfall is expected across the Southeast.
New Orleans can expect drier weather for the weekend.
“Rain chances will gradually decrease through the remainder of the week, with a dry forecast for the weekend,” the New Orleans office of the Weather Service said.
Nazaneen Ghaffar is a Times reporter on the Weather team.
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