Missouri Could Get Soaked by Remnants of a Cat 5 Hurricane

It's not often that I can warn my fellow Missourians to prepare for the remnants of a category 5 hurricane, but that's the story as we head into next week as heavy rain will be bearing down on us thanks to a monster storm in the Pacific.

This is the current track of Hurricane Polo, a storm that was assigned a category 5 status due to sustained winds of 180 mph

Infographic, NOAA.gov

Notice that the storm has changed direction and his headed directly towards Missouri. No, it will obviously not be a hurricane or even a tropical storm by the time it reaches the Midwest, but it will be packing extremely heavy rainfall which is why Missouri can expect heavy rainfall by the middle of next week.

Infographic, NOAA Storm Prediction Center

This is why the NOAA Weather Prediction Center has issued an excessive rain advisory and nearly all of Missouri is involved. Many parts of the state will see 5 or more inches of rain with most of the moisture falling Wednesday, September 30 and Thursday, October 1. Note that the speed of the storm is unclear at this time, but roughly expect big rainfall amounts in the middle of next week.

I haven't seen any mention of flash flooding or anything life-threatening at this point, but it would be wise to pay closer attention to local rainfall amounts from the National Weather Service depending on what part of Missouri you call home. It's one of those unique situations where Missouri weather will be the result of remnants of what used to be a cat 5 hurricane.