LANETT – It looks like the Greater Valley Area will be heading into 2019 with a lot of rainfall throughout the next few days.

Jason Holmes, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Birmingham, said there is a very wet pattern heading toward the Valley Thursday morning with chances rapidly increasing to about 60 percent in the morning and hitting 90 percent by the afternoon. The high precipitation chances stay throughout the night hours, he said.

Typically, with weather systems providing lots of rain, there is a cold front that comes beforehand, but not this one based on the wind patterns, Holmes said. The first system should clear out by Friday night, but more rain is on the way afterward.

Holmes said there is a small break of rain chances to about 30 percent Friday night and early Saturday morning, but another system pushes through the Valley increasing those chances up to about 60 percent in the late morning and up to 80 percent by the evening.

Holmes said the system should be moving out of the area by Sunday, but rain chances will remain at about 60 percent, in time for another system to make its way into the area Monday. He said the start of the week will see about a 70 percent chance of rain.

“It is just going to take some time to get that system out of here,” Holmes said.

Going into Tuesday, there will be about a 50 percent chance of rain, and finally on Wednesday, rain chances drop to about 30 percent, Holmes said.

“We are talking about almost a full week of high rain chances throughout the area,” he said.

With that much rain expected, flash flood watches have been issued throughout the state, including the Valley through at least Friday. Holmes said those watches could be extended because some areas could see more than 4 inches of rain. However, most places will see about 2 to 3 inches.

The season has seen a lot of wet weather recently, so creeks and lakes have been high and there is a concern of riving flooding by Friday and into the weekend, Holmes said.

Additionally, thunderstorms could be a possibility on Thursday and Friday, but Holmes said severe weather isnt expected. There is a wind advisory with those systems until midnight Wednesday, reaching 20 to 25 mph and gusts hitting up to 35 mph. 

The temperature isn’t dropping too much either during the rainfall, with temperatures expected to stay in the 60s, but afterward, Holmes said temperatures could fall to about lows around the 30s.