VIRGINIA BEACH — Thanks to a low-pressure system that is stuck between two high pressure systems and stalled on the east coast, rainfall totals in here over the past seven days have ranged from three-to-four inches in the northern half to as much as seven inches in the southern and southeastern part of the city.
But residents who are experiencing high water and flooding don’t need the media to tell them we’re seeing an atypical amount of rain here.
“It is an unusual set-up for this time of year,” said Eswar Iyer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wakefield.
He said typically, quick, heavy downpours are much more common with clearing after – along with perhaps the usual flash flooding.
To have days of prolonged cloud cover and rain is uncommon in the area at this time of the year.
The low-pressure system that is stalled over the region is drawing moisture from the south and southeast.
RELATED STORY: Floodwaters bring dangers in and out of the home
Unfortunately, while rainfall on Thursday and Friday looks “fairly benign,” Iyer said he expects the rain to hang around the area through the weekend and even into next week.
While the possibility exists of some showers perhaps bringing as much as an inch an hour, a precise forecast is difficult, he added.
It’s not always easy to realize, but it could be worse: Currituck County just to our south in North Carolina has had 10 inches of rain over the same time period.
