National Weather Service website down amid Flash Flood Watch in Tennessee

At least seven deaths reported after rain pummelled state over weekend as further rainfall will be accompanied by freezing temperatures this week

The website of the National Weather Service crashed as it monitored the Flash Flood in Tennessee that has caused at least seven deaths.

The main NWS Twitter account posted that it was "experiencing intermittent communications network issues and temporary outages of some web services. We are working on repairs and determining the root cause".

They added that this isn't "affecting NWS’ ability to deliver official watches and warnings".

The director of the North Carolina Climate Office, Dr Cathie Dello, tweeted that the "outages are just part and parcel of our country's massive infrastructure problems. It's hard to imagine meaningful climate resilience without addressing our literally crumbling bridges, broken roads, and 1995 data services".

The crash comes as a Flash Flood Warning are set to come into effect in Tennessee on Tuesday evening after at least seven deaths were reported in the state. Rescue teams performed at least 240 rescues over the weekend.

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Nashville Mayor Democrat John Cooper declared a state of emergency on Sunday after rains flooded homes, at least one church, and made some roads useless, The Independent reported earlier.

The Flash Flood Warning will be in effect from 7pm on Tuesday and last throughout Wednesday. It comes as an additional 1-2 inches of rain is expected on Tuesday afternoon after the state was pummelled by rainfall this weekend. Seven inches was recorded to have hit Nashville International Airport.

NWS Meteorologist Sam Shamburger told the Tennessean: "Normally this amount of rain wouldn't cause flooding, but because it is so wet there is that possibility."

The warning covers all of Middle Tennessee with the possibility of runoff and localised flooding in flood-prone parts of the state, according to NWS. The weather service says the rain will move into the western parts of Middle Tennessee and enter Nashville on Tuesday evening.

Mr Shamburger said that the risk of a tornado hitting the area is "very low, but can't be ruled out", adding that "the biggest concern is flooding”.

After the chaos of this weekend, there were still areas of high water on Tuesday morning, when an adult and a child were rescued from the roof of a car in around two feet of water in southeastern Nashville.

The rain that is projected to continue in waves into Wednesday afternoon comes as freezing temperatures could further imperil residents. Temperatures in the low 30s and even down into the 20s are expected this week.

Mr Shamburger told the Tennessean that a light freeze will hit on Thursday morning followed by a hard freeze on Friday morning.

Dry weather is projected from Thursday halfway through next week with temperatures expected to rise as well.