What is an Areal Flood Watch?

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By StormTracker Weather Team

Story Published: Mar 30, 2009 at 6:41 PM EDT

Story Updated: Mar 30, 2009 at 6:41 PM EDT

AUGUSTA, Ga. - This past weekend, the National Weather Service issued an Areal Flood Watch for parts of our viewing area in response to a storm system that brought heavy rain to Georgia and South Carolina.

NBC Augusta 26 News kept viewers updated throughout the weather event, and at times the words "Areal Flood Watch" appeared on our weather crawl on-air.

This prompted some viewers to tell us that we had misspelled the word "areal," and that it should be "area."

However, the National Weather Service recently adopted the new term, which generally means the same as the more commonly used "Flood Watch" designation. Basically an Areal Flood Watch means there is potential for flooding over a large area. The word "areal" is the adjective version of the noun "area."

There's no word on why the National Weather Service changed the name of the watch.

Chief Meteorologist Jeff Rucker explains further in the video attached with this story.

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Sunday, Jan 24 at 11:21 PM Neil wrote ...

And also, what's the difference between scattered showers and isolated showers? Also, what's the difference between the NWS and a banana?

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