Union County residents can expect more rain throughout the remainder of the week as remnants of Gordon, a tropical storm that had been expected to become a hurricane, move into southern Arkansas.
Patrick Omundson, a forecaster at the Shreveport, Louisiana, office of the National Weather Service, said storms could begin as early as this afternoon and continue through Thursday. The area is expected to see sustained winds of about 20-30 mph and intermittent, heavy showers throughout that period, he said.
Gordon had been anticipated to become a hurricane as it made landfall on the Mississippi coast Tuesday night, but that never happened. The tropical storm still made a deadly land fall Tuesday, killing a child by blowing a tree onto a mobile home, before weakening into a depression Wednesday. The National Hurricane Center said Gordon was weakening on a path into Arkansas after striking the coast at 70 mph, just shy of hurricane strength, near Pascagoula, Mississippi. The remnants will likely cause flash flooding across parts of seven states and as far north as Iowa in the coming days.
Heading into the weekend, Omundson said, Union County residents can expect to see more general scattered thunderstorms. He said residents can expect to see about 2-4 inches of rain spread out over a three-day period.
Because the storm track of Gordon has remained consistent, he said, the local area isn’t expected to see any dramatic downpours or flooding, though that could change if the track of Gordon suddenly shifts and moves further west.
“Since the models have been so consistent, we’re not really expecting it to make a sudden change,” Omundson said. “But that is a caveat.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this article.