Remnants of Barry expected to bring rain to central Ohio by midweek
Barry was downgraded to a tropical depression as the storm slowly trekked north into southern Arkansas, with winds down to 35 mph.
A day after Barry made landfall as a hurricane, residents in New Orleans breathed a sigh of relief, after the storm delivered only moderate amounts of rain and wind, but far from the worst-case scenario.
A moisture plume continues to surge north through the lower Mississippi Valley to the mouth of the Ohio River in southern Illinois. The nature of persistent heavy rain bands setting up from Mississippi/Alabama to Tennessee will cause flash flooding, as considerable moisture is drawn off the Gulf of Mexico.
The remnants of Barry will move across the Ohio Valley Tuesday and Wednesday, with the potential for locally heavy rain in embedded thunderstorms.
Computer models referred to as spaghetti plots reveal a middle track not far from the I-70 corridor midweek, with up to 2 inches of rain possible, and possibly locally heavier amounts, given the nature of tropical downpours.
The arrival of muggy air will also ensure random pop-up thunderstorms this week that will add to the moist pattern all week.
July has been much drier (1.56 inches in Columbus) than June (7.04 inches) so there will be a little more room for the ground to absorb the rainfall, as long as it does not fall too hard too fast.