We’re sick of the rain. You’re sick of the rain. But it’s not done with us yet.
Moisture streaming in from the Gulf of Mexico has fueled strong showers and thunderstorms across much of Houston today, but the effects have been worst just north and east of the city. Areas between Humble and Crosby have seen 5 inches of rain today, leading to significant street flooding in some locations. So far, bayous and creeks remain within banks.
The worst storms are presently slowly marching north of the hardest hit areas, but additional rounds of showers will be possible this afternoon. Activity should begin to wane by around 6pm CT, and shut off entirely by around sunset.
More rain is possible on Tuesday, but it should be less intense, and concentrated more to the south and west of Houston. How confident are we in that forecast? Not particularly given how badly today’s heavy rains were forecast.
Not sick of the rain as long as people don’t flood. At least it keeps the temps in check. We will be in the Houston summer bake off soon never fear.
I’m starting to grow webbed hands and feet!
Really, really not looking forward to the mosquito population in a few week’s time that I had hoped the freeze would reduce.
I forgot about that… maybe the freeze killed enough of them to make it tolerable.
Just made them meaner…
Get Altosid. They are not toxic to pets, birds, or fish. They only kill mosquito larvae at a certain point in development. I sprinkle it in my flower beds, throughout the grass, anywhere that water collects. After the rain quits, I will put it in my French drains. It really works! I get it on Amazon.
In Pearland, near Centennial Park, my rain gauge shows almost 3 inches since noonish. County rain gauges show 2.2 to 2.68.
Love Space City Weather! You just show how complex it is to forecast a system.
I wish Houston was a city that was developed in a civilized fashion, with flood control in mind etc so the rain would be just an inconvenience every once in a while where you would focus on how big your umbrella should be rather than thinking will my house flood again, why the city cannot build proper drainage so my street floods and I lose power every time a drop of water falls despite ridiculous amount of property taxes I pay.
Is it safe to say that the Houston area is no longer in or close to drought?
Yes. Eric mentioned the rain’s effect on the drought conditions in the earlier post this morning.
Yes, in this morning’s forecast they said we’re clear of it. You can also check out the drought monitor map.
Rain won’t let up here in Lee County. Keeping the hay from being harvested.
I caught Eric’s segment on NPR this afternoon. Eric hit the nail on head. To paraphrase our forecast suffers due to lack of data. When the NWS? shut down the Houston area facility, Bay City I believe, we are left relying on data collected at Lake Charles and Corpus. Fourth largest city in the US with regular flooding events and we can’t have a data collection facility!
Wait, what? There isn’t an office in league city? Got a link?
There is a NWS Office in league City, just not one in the city of Houston: https://www.weather.gov/hgx/office
All right to answer my own question, for posterity, Eric was on Houston Public Media’s May 24 Town Square show. In it (about 44 minutes into the show), Eric makes the comment that “we don’t have great sounding data… a profile of the atmosphere from the ground all the way out to space… where we have all sorts of variables that help you understand where precipitation can and cannot occur. The closest locations for those soundings to Houston is actually Lake Charles and Corpus Christi.”
We do still have the office in League City, so the NWS hasn’t shut down our local facilities. They just don’t send up weather balloons, relying instead on data reported by aircraft arriving and departing nearby airports — the same air traffic that would complicate sending up weather balloons in the (relatively) immediate area. Houstonia mag covers it here, back in 2017:
https://www.houstoniamag.com/news-and-city-life/2017/12/houston-weather-balloons
Also, the Houston Press covered it in 2016:
https://www.houstonpress.com/news/houston-unlike-most-other-major-cities-doesnt-regularly-launch-weather-balloons-8376636
And, of course, Eric himself wrote about it for the Chronicle back in 2011. Clearly, I’ve not been following Eric Berger as closely as I thought:
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Houston-forecasters-missing-key-tool-a-weather-1684823.php
So we still have our indefatigable team of local meteorologists, they just don’t have weather balloon data to use in the local precipitation forecasts.
What? More on this please.
This and the lack of a weather balloon have never made sense to me. If it’s a money thing, there’s enough big money here for a corporate underwriter. That would be excellent PR and keep the community safer.
7.31” of rain on Lake Houston next door to Deussen Park.
The PWS rain gage at the house of my neighbor has recorded 2.91″ since midnight. Almost ALL of it came between 10:00 and 11:15 AM. At 10:15 the RATE was 5.93″/h here for about 10 minutes. I thought the blast we got last Tuesday or Wednesday (2.47″ in less than an hour) was impressive. But today took the cake!
I think Eric just forgot to take into account the “Brood X” cicada emergence which has obviously affected the jet stream and thus Houston weather patterns. Easy to do since it only happens every 17 years. I blame that. And COVID.