THE CALM VS THE STORM...

Harvey is continuing to wreck havoc in southern Texas with upwards of 20 inches of rain already on the ground and more to come.

Above are some of the rainfall totals in and around Houston through Sunday afternoon. To put this in perspective.. Houston has had around 20 inches of rain in the last two days. Since January 1, over the last eight months, Cedar Rapids has received around 20 inches of rain.

Rain is still falling and some of these totals could *double* over the next five days.

The reason why this situation is so devastating is because there is nothing driving the storm. Here's one model (the GFS) showing a depiction of Harvey through Friday afternoon.

Little movement... possibly making a second landfall if the center of circulation gets offshore. The storm is staying so close to the Gulf of Mexico that it is able to pull in a lot of moisture. Check out the precipitable water values (moisture content in the air) on Monday afternoon. Between two to three inches, which is 170% above normal:

It is already a terrible scene down in Texas and it is far from over. The National Weather Service on Sunday called the event "unprecedented and all impacts are unknown & beyond anything experienced."

The weather is pretty calm across the rest of the country comparatively... check out the rainfall across the nation over the next five days -

Here in the Midwest a weak cold front will continue to move through on Monday and lead to a few scattered showers and storms:

Thereafter, high pressure will move on in, clear the skies and keep the weather calm.

Humidity is going to be low and temperatures will be near and below normal through the week. It's been feeling like fall for a while and meteorological fall begins on Friday. Quite a different story down in the southern part of the country where the flooding is far from over.

RK