What Is a Stagnant Storm and Why Are They So Dangerous?

Most storms zip across the landscape, dropping rain for a couple hours before heading somewhere else. But sometimes weather gets stuck in one place like a car breaking down on the highway. Stagnant storm setups create absolute nightmares for flooding because they dump crazy amounts of rain over the same spots for hours or even days.

Slow moving storms wreck way more stuff than fast ones, even when they don't have strong winds. Picture a garden sprinkler sitting in one corner - it'll flood that area while a sprinkler moving around waters everything nice and even. Weather does the exact same thing when storm systems refuse to budge from their spots.

How Storms Get Trapped

Stationary weather systems happen when the steering winds that usually push storms around suddenly get weak or just disappear. Storms need those upper-level winds to guide them across the country, kind of like boats needing currents to carry them downstream. When steering currents fade away, storms can park themselves over unlucky areas for dangerously long stretches.

Storm training describes another nasty pattern where multiple storms follow the same path like train cars on tracks. Individual storms might move okay, but they keep smacking the same areas over and over. This creates a conveyor belt situation that dumps ridiculous amounts of rain on communities that can't get a break between downpours.