How to stay safe from flash flooding this summer
Early Friday morning, the Guadalupe River in central south Texas quickly rose to the height of a two-story building. In its wake, a deadly trail of destruction.
"We don't see something like this happen a lot," said WCCO Meteorologist Lisa Meadows.
The devastation is due to an unfortunate combination of elements, said Meadows. In this case, flash flooding happened fast and during nightfall.
"There was a Tropical Storm Barry that brought in a lot of moisture ahead of the storm that produced all of the rainfall, so that added more moisture in. This storm system came in, it dropped about ten to fifteen maybe even more inches of rainfall, all of this came down at once," said Meadows.
It's important to keep an eye on flash flooding forecasts, Meadows said. That's when conditions can change seemingly in an instant.
"There are a couple of things that we do when we give our forecast that tries to give people an extra heads up, if there's the potential for flooding," Meadows said.
In Minnesota, there's a marginal flash flooding risk on Monday.
"We've definitely had flooding situations up here in the past," Meadows said.
Minnesota isn't completely immune to the level of severe flooding that Texas is seeing, which is why it's so important to pay attention to forecasts this summer.
"It still is a possibility of course even up here," said Meadows. "You're camping somewhere where there isn't great cell service, you need to keep that in mind."
Make sure you have a way to keep up with forecasts, Meadows said, especially in unfamiliar areas.
"Keep in mind that if you do get a lot of heavy rain at once, how that may change the area around you, the campsite, if you're by a river," said Meadows.
