Eric Berger

Severe thunderstorms approaching NW Harris County and The Woodlands

The major storms that developed over the Brazos Valley today are slowly moving toward the metro Houston area. Parts of northwest Harris County and Montgomery County are included in the latest severe thunderstorm warning from the National Weather Service.

Area of Severe Thunderstorm warning in effect until 5:15pm CT. (National Weather Service)
Area of Severe Thunderstorm warning in effect until 5:15pm CT. (National Weather Service)

 

In addition to heavy rain, these storms are capable of producing wind gusts in excess of 60mph and hail. If you are on the north side of Houston this evening please do not drive into high water and remain indoors if possible. The warning is in effect until 5:15pm.

It still seems likely the bulk of these storms, which are moving slowly to the east, will remain over the northern half of the Houston metro area this evening, north of Interstate 10.

Posted at 4:25pm CT on Thursday by Eric Berger

Major rain event developing just northwest of Houston today

A very serious flooding event has been developing this afternoon to the northwest of the Houston metro area, primarily from Brenham through College Station to an area north of Huntsville. The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood warning for the following area until 6pm CT Thursday.

Flash flood warning is in effect until 6pm CT. (National Weather Service)
Flash flood warning is in effect until 6pm CT. (National Weather Service)

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Storms possible today and Friday before a seasonal Memorial Day weekend

It’s a summer-like morning across the Houston region, with temperatures only falling down to around 80 degrees and humidity of about 90 percent. With Memorial Day weekend upon us, such is life now in Houston for the next few months.

TODAY and FRIDAY

Clearly there’s a lot of moisture in the atmosphere, but to produce showers and thunderstorms we’re going to need some disturbances in the upper-levels of the atmosphere to produce lift. And we’re like to see those during the next two days in Houston. I think the region will remain quiet this morning, but by this afternoon and again on Friday I think we’re going to scattered to widespread thunderstorms. These will have the capability to produce locally heavy rainfall, hail and damaging winds.

The forecast models suggest these systems will be most organized to the west and north of Houston during the next couple of days, and that’s borne out in the rain accumulation forecast from NOAA shown below. If you click on it you’ll see coastal areas may well see less than 1 inch of rain, with considerably higher accumulations inland.

NOAA rain accumulation forecast for Thursday morning through Sunday. (Weather Bell)
NOAA rain accumulation forecast for Thursday morning through Sunday. (Weather Bell)

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Houston did it! Just missed 90° on Wednesday.

Well, it was close. And with the humidity it sure felt a lot hotter than 90° out. But the official weather site at Bush Intercontinental Airport peaked at 89° this afternoon and now appears to be cooling off slightly as evening comes upon us.

It seems likely that a combination of cloud cover and scattered to widespread showers on Thursday and Friday will limit temperatures to the mid-80s. We’ll then have to concern ourselves with highs approaching 90° during the Memorial Day weekend, but I’d say at this point there’s a decent chance we’ll get out of May without the mercury hitting 90. That hasn’t happened since 1970 in Houston.