The term "tropical rainstorm" was first implemented by AccuWeather and is meant to highlight the lingering dangerous impacts of a tropical system, including life-threatening flooding and tornadoes.

AccuWeather meteorologists clarify the term 'tropical rainstorm,' which they use to describe tropical systems that retain a center of circulation but may not have strong winds. Unlike technical designations like '93L,' this terminology is intended to alert the public to ongoing risks, including significant rainfall, flooding, and tornadoes, even as these systems move inland and lose their official storm names.

The discussion references past events, such as Hurricane Ida, to illustrate how tropical rainstorms can cause destructive tornadoes and record-breaking flash flooding far from the coast. Current forecasts highlight the potential for localized heavy rain, flash flooding, and tornadoes in areas affected by these systems, underscoring the need for continued vigilance and preparedness.

Explaining the dangers of a tropical rainstorm

John, I want to go over some terminology, because we don't follow the 93L, 98L, and all that stuff. When we believe that there's a center of circulation with a tropical system, we call it a tropical rainstorm. Let's go over the history and the methodology of calling something a tropical rainstorm. And we got to get John's mic on? I think John's mic. You see other weather sources using terminology like 93L, confusing terminology and jargon like that. We call it what it is, which is a tropical rainstorm that was first implemented by AccuWeather decades ago, and that highlights the risks from these storms that may not have a lot of wind intensity associated with them, but they're big rainmakers, both at the coast, and then we track it as long as it's still a distinct feature well inland as well, because these storms often produce life-threatening flooding and tornadoes at the coast and inland, even if they don't have a name. And we want people to be best prepared and stay safer. That's what we do here at AccuWeather. I think a classic example of this has to be Hurricane Ida, which made landfall here. There it is across Louisiana as a dangerous hurricane on August 29th. Notice what happened, John. Days later, the circulation, we continue to call it a tropical rainstorm as it approached the mid-Atlantic and northeast, and look what it did days after it made landfall. Destructive tornadoes across parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, down toward Maryland, and also other parts of the mid-Atlantic. These were EF-2 or EF-3 tornadoes that caused a lot of damage in some communities, in some neighborhoods, and in addition to that, it produced catastrophic flash flooding, the most severe flash flooding in New York City modern history. Yeah, the park, I was looking at Central Park that day, they had almost eight inches of rain on September 1st. We also had tornadoes all the way up in the eastern parts of Massachusetts, and that's why we made that decision decades ago to continue to track the center of circulation because it causes mischief and mayhem. There's our tropical rainstorm today, John. Right, and this is going to result in some significant flash flooding concerns across parts of Louisiana into Friday, and then that rain is going to spread further to the north, and this may not be a widespread shield of rain where everybody gets heavy rain in this dark green area, but it can be more localized, and rain rates of one to three inches per hour, that's enough to result in flash flooding, which can be significant in some locations, and then that moisture burning is drawn northward. Look at this, four to eight inches of rain across the southern part of Louisiana with an AccuWeather local storm max of 16, which is the maximum conceivable value at any location whether it's observed or not. So that showcases that these persistent downpours are going to create a significant risk for flash flooding. You and the forecast team, John, have been highlighting this now for a couple of days, not only in Louisiana, but the problem is this moisture, some of that moisture is going to start getting northward. We have frontal boundaries coming down, cooler air with a northwest flow, rounds of showers and thunderstorms, and also you guys put out, even, you're so worried about it, you put a rain map associated with this. Ariel has been talking about this throughout the morning. We did because there's going to be a surge of tropical moisture associated with that system that is then brought up into a very active jet stream pattern. So look out from parts of Iowa through Illinois, down to the Ohio Valley, and even over into the Appalachians, an area that, areas that have been hard hit by persistent downpours in recent weeks. The ground is saturated. We're going to have four to eight inches of rain with an AccuWeather local storm max of 13 inches over this area from Saturday to Monday. Numerous flash flood concerns in this area. Be prepared to move to higher ground if you receive a flash flood warning in your community. This can be a big deal here this weekend into early next week.

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