More Rain Headed for Already Sodden Texas

The state Texas has been in a state of disaster because of the weather recently—and now more rain is predicted for the already sodden state.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared states of disaster in 18 counties on Oct.16 after hard rain saturated the soil of central Texas, causing rivers to flood and lakes to spill over their dams.

According to AccuWeather, some parts of Texas have seen months worth of rainfall in just a few days. An unusual blast of cold air has descended onto south-central Texas where it met moist tropical air lingering from summer. The combination is proving disastrous for residents in the region.

The Llano River overflows its banks into neighboring property as the swollen river flows between the washed out Ranch Road 2900 bridge background in Kingsland, Texas, on Oct. 16, 2018. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman/AP

Much of central Texas is arid plains and rolling hills. Four to eight inches of rain is all the region might expect to see in the entire month of October. Yet more than 10 inches of rain have fallen on the region in a period of just 36 hours.

The resulting flash floods washed out bridges and roads, stranded people in their homes and in some cases washed them away in their cars as they tried to drive to safety.

And now, according to AccuWeather, more moisture is on the way.

“A new surge of tropical moisture from the Gulf of Mexico will lead to more rounds of drenching rain and a renewed risk of flooding into Saturday,” said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.

Moist air coming ashore off the Gulf of Mexico will bring more precipitation along a corridor stretching from Corpus Christie on the coast and across the state, hitting San Antonio, Abilene, and the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

“The AccuWeather Local StormMax™ for portions of central Texas is projected to be 14 inches from Friday, Oct. 12 through Friday, Oct. 19,” Sosnowski said.

With all the rain that has fallen already on the state, every additional drop just adds to the risk of more flash floods and dam overflows.

Record Rainfall

Flooding of the Llano River reached near-record levels the morning of Oct. 16. The force of the floods was sufficient to knock down the FM 2900 bridge near Kingsland.

The Trinity River at Liberty, Texas, is projected to peak at major flood stage this weekend, possibly just a couple feet shy of the record crest of 32.7 feet, AccuWeather reported.

Several central Texas lakes reached or came near to record depths earlier in the week.

Lake Buchanan and Lake Travis both neared flood levels on Oct. 16.

Dallas has already passed its previous record for the wettest autumn of record, with six weeks left in the season, AccuWeather reports.

For meteorologists, autumn lasts from Sept. 1–Nov. 30. By the middle of October, the Dallas area had already passed the previous record of 21.82 inches of rainfall, set in 2015. And of course, more rain is predicted.

The city’s record for the wettest October is 14.18 inches, set in 1981. This October, Dallas has seen 11.2 inches of rain already—another record likely to fall if the rain moves in as predicted.

The Future Looks Wetter

“There is the potential for another round of heavy rain during the middle of next week,” AccuWeather meteorologist Sosnowski said.

There is a tropical storm forming to the west of Texas in the Pacific, which could gather strength and move east ward across the state in the early days of next week—in other words, just about the time people have come out of their storm shelters to appraise the damage done by this weekend’s storms.

AccuWeather holds out some hope. The Pacific storm will have to cross the mountains of Mexico to reach Texas, and may lose some of its moisture in the process.

From NTD.tv

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