The National Weather Service posted a sobering graphic this afternoon showing major area reservoirs still under flooding pressure from very heavy rains Sunday night and Monday. The US Army Corps of Engineers also said today that water continues to rise in the Addicks and Barker reservoirs in west Harris County, threatening to add additional waters into surrounding neighborhoods.
A line of storms moved through the flood-stricken Houston area this morning, and as expected generally dropped 0.5 to 1.5 inches of rain. The bulk of the system is now moving off into the Gulf of Mexico, and will clear out entirely by mid-afternoon. Although we could still see a few isolated showers this afternoon and evening, for the most part we’re pretty much done with rain for today and tonight.
As expected a line of showers and thunderstorms is moving down through Texas this morning, and it should reach Houston by the mid- to late-morning hours.
This line is generally producing about 0.5 to 1.5 inches of rain as it moves toward the coast, and the good news (if there is any) is that the system has generally moved at a pretty good clip. This means the threat of slow-moving storms is lower. Although we can’t rule out some isolated areas of 3 inches or more, I think for the most part people will see about 1 inch of rain. After the system moves through, later today and tonight, we should see some scattered, but potentially intense, thunderstorms pop up as we saw on Tuesday afternoon and evening.
Scattered thunderstorms—some of them pretty intense—have begun dying out this evening with the loss of daytime heating. After what I expect to be a fairly quiet night tonight, what comes on Wednesday?
Probably some more rain. We’ll see a spike in atmospheric moisture levels on Wednesday, and several forecast models show a fairly healthy line of showers moving down through Texas, likely reaching the College Station area an hour or two after sunrise, and perhaps moving into the Houston area by around noon. Note: these times are estimates, and the timing may vary. But I think it’s reasonable to expect the possibility of some heavy rain in Houston between the late morning hours on Wednesday until around 5 p.m.
