Heavy rain possible Monday – Tuesday

(KMSP) - It’s been a wet couple of days in and around the state, but it’s about to get a whole lot wetter for some.

Now that the atmosphere has experienced a couple of days of persistent moisture streaming in, it is now starting to build up which will likely lead to some areas of heavy rain late Monday and into Tuesday.

The key with this situation is that the entire area will likely NOT get heavy rain. However, there will likely be at least 1 band of intense and persistent rain to set up somewhere in the area. The exact location of this band or bands cannot be forecasted with 100 percent accuracy, but the areas with the greatest chance of seeing the heavy rain is where the National Weather Service issued Flash Flood Watches -- it’s that dark green colored located in the picture above.

This would put the best chances for the heaviest rains just north and west of most metro locations. This does NOT preclude the metro from experiencing this heavy rain, but shows the areas with the best opportunity for large rains that could lead to flash flooding. The potential exists for many areas in and around these bands to get anywhere from one to upwards of 4 inches of rain.

Considering its fall, leaves are changing and falling, and those can quickly clog storm drains which can exacerbate any and all flooding that otherwise would or would not occur. So spend the day Monday removing leaves from gutters and storm drains to allow heavy rain to run off more smoothly.