Flood Watch in effect through midnight Monday

Sogginess provided by the remnants of Helene plus an old warm front has convinced the National Weather Service to issue a Flood Watch for Mecklenburg county until midnight tonight (Monday). The copious amount of rainfall over the area - especially upstream - has saturated the soil. In addition to raising river and stream levels the muddy runoff is pushing a lot of debris into Buggs Island Lake / Kerr Reservoir, discoloring the water and raising lake levels as shown on this graphic:

That old warm front created quite a ruckus west of the U.S. Route 29 corridor yesterday, providing enough low level wind shear that thunderstorms which moved northward into Virginia began to spin like tops. Several tornado warnings were issued, surprising just about every forecaster in the region. That boundary is still nearby, but there is little expectation that yesterday's "excitement" will reoccur today. 

Today will continue to be cloudy and wet with showers and perhaps a peek or two of sunshine. Temperatures will slowly climb from this morning's readings near 70 degrees to afternoon highs in the mid-70s. Tuesday's weather looks much the same but with somewhat lower rain chances as the tropical moisture begins to slide out of the area. A cold front will sweep through on Wednesday and bring back the sunshine.