Tropical Storm Cindy to bring heavy rains and flooding to Gulf Coast

Earlier Tuesday, Tropical Storm Cindy formed in the Gulf of Mexico amidst unfavorable atmospheric conditions. Cindy is expected to strengthen only slightly before making landfall somewhere along the Louisiana/Texas coastline.

It’s unusual for storms to form this early in the Gulf of Mexico, but they have happened in the past.

While Cindy will likely see max wind speeds only up to 50 mph, the storm will still greatly affect the Gulf Coast and have some influence on Mid-Missouri’s weather.

Tropical storm warnings have been issued from the mouth of the Pearl River all the way back into Texas, with tropical storm conditions expected to arrive within the next 36 hours.

While the storm doesn’t look impressive on satellite, there is ongoing thunderstorm activity in the Gulf of Mexico. Cindy is expected to track to the northeast through the night before making landfall, where upwards of 6+ inches of rainfall will fall from Texas all the way to the Florida Panhandle.

But how will Cindy affect Mid-Missouri? The track of Cindy stays north until it interacts with a cold front that will be tracking across Mid-Missouri, this will likely bring heavy rainfall along and south of I-44. The majority of the tropical system will miss Mid-Missouri, but we will see some moisture stream into the region ahead of the cold front.

As the cold front tracks through Missouri, Cindy will take a sharp turn to the northeast, with an additional 4-5 inches of rain likely across Kentucky and Tennessee.

As for us here in Mid-Missouri, thanks to the cold front, up to 1 inch of rain will fall across Mid-Missouri.