Heavy Rainfall and Flooding Threats in the Midwest and Ohio Valley; Heat Continues in the Plains and Southeast

An active pattern will continue to bring heavy to excessive rainfall and flash flooding threats to the Midwest and Ohio Valley over the next couple of days. Dangerous heat continues across the central/southern Plains and Southeast U.S. into next week. There is potential for record-tying/breaking temperatures with many areas forecast to see their hottest temperatures so far this year. Read More >

Have you ever seen a radar image that suggested it should be raining or snowing at your location, but it wasn't? The radar isn't lying, rather, the the rain or snow is not hitting the ground. If you have a dry air mass in place in the low levels, sometimes rain cannot completely penetrate that dry layer before it evaporates. Rain that doesn't make it to the ground is called virga.

Below is a graphic showing a cross section of a saturated environment with rain intersecting a dry air mass. The deeper into the dry air mass you go, the less chance the rain has of reaching the ground. The radar will still detect the rain aloft, but you may not see it at the surface. This scenario is one reason why it is hard to break drought conditions once they set in. Rain that you do get is reduced because of the dry air in place.