The flooding situation in Southeast Texas is catastrophic, all thanks to now Tropical storm Harvey, and unfortunately another one to two feet is forecasted to fall in that area through Thursday. The Houston area has already seen a couple feet of rainfall this weekend and that number could double by the time the storm is over with. Wish I could say the storm is finished, but unfortunately we’re just in the middle of it in Texas, and it’s just beginning in Southwest Louisiana.
More rain is expected through Thursday in Texas and Louisiana, some models suggesting as much as a couple more feet.
The weather pattern is locked and very stationary with a ridge to the west and a trough to the east. Texas is right in the middle of it with not much steering. Without much steering, Tropical Storm Harvey has been able to dump heavy rainfall over the same places over and over again. The latest track of Harvey takes it south back into the ocean and then north again, possibly going back over Houston. Not expecting the storm to strengthen into a hurricane again, but it will likely gather more moisture and could strengthen some.  One interesting thing to note is that the latest water vapor imagery shows some drier air moving into the Corpus Christi area, which should slow the rain down and break it up the next twenty four hours.Â
The rest of this blog includes a lot of stats, not only for the southeast but also for our area. We could break several records at the Reno Airport this week because of the heat. It’s been a hot summer and we only need to be in the triple digits two more times this year to break the record for number of triple digit days this year. We’ve been in the 90’s seventy one times so far this summer and only need two more days to beat that record this year.  We could also break the daily maximum high temperature for both Monday and Tuesday as temperatures near one hundred degrees.
We have a very dry climate in Reno but that is not the case in Houston where it is more tropical. Over the past several years the Houston area has received anywhere between two feet to seventy inches of rain on an annual basis, but with Harvey they could do that in few days time.
Tropical Storm Allison was a big flooding event for the Houston area in 2001, and the flooding taking shape now is likely much worse. This weekend the Houston area broke the two day max precipitation amount with around twenty one inches. In third place is almost a foot set back in 2014.Â
According to NOAA and the WPC the most rain Texas has ever received from a Tropical Cyclone and its remnants was 48 inches from Tropical Storm Amelia in 1978. According to this map, in Nevada it's about four inches from the remnants of Hurricane Doreen in 1977.
If you would like to help out, the Red Cross would be a good place to start. Our forecast will be quiet Monday with a chance for dry lightning Tuesday and Wednesday. For more information you can find me, KTVN Angela Schilling, on Facebook or Twitter.
Â
