A broken line of heavy thunderstorms has reached western Harris County as of 8 a.m. CT and will move through the metro region during the next several hours.
These storms could bring an additional 1 to 3 inches of rain to Houston, but fortunately many of the region’s bayous have had a couple of hours to recede.
It also appears that the very heaviest rains this morning may fall to the west and north of Houston, over areas less battered by overnight rains. This could spare central and southern parts of the region — Highway 288 is impassable in many locations — from the worst of it. Nevertheless flooding remains possible across the area due to saturated soils and the potential for these storms to drop a lot of rain quickly. Travel is not advised before 11 a.m. or noon.
In addition to the heavy rains severe weather is also likely, including the possibility of tornadoes. The most favorable location, according to NOAA, is to the east-southeast of Houston through 10 a.m. this morning.
These storms continue to make steady eastward progress, and I still expect clearing to occur during the afternoon hours. Conditions for this evening still look pretty good, with only very scattered light rain possible.
Posted at 8 a.m. Saturday
Thank you as always for your timely and thoughtful updates
Rain has stopped around Ellington, but I guess this is temporary.
Sky is looking a bit more ominous to the south.
Yes, Thank you for the hype-free insightful updates!
Apparently Cypress Creek is over its banks north of Bush IAH (right now, 10AM Oct 31). Here in the Champions area, Cypress Creek is still well below its banks. This is a good site to check the creeks and bayous:
http://www.harriscountyfws.org/
Round Two just blew through the Ellington/Clear Lake area in the last half hour or so – power was flickering and considerable lightning – now up to 3.9″ in the rain gauge.
Thanks for the updates. We always appreciate your specific thoughts about how rough weather is affecting our area specifically in our flood group.
You’re quite welcome. A close call for southwest Houston this morning, but all should be OK now.