Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Historic Flooding!

                                           (I-45 at North Main - courtesy +AlexGreen713

Overnight deluges turned interstates into waterways, stranding thousands. Bayous and rivers overflowed their banks and continue to rise. The map above shows the astonishing totals across Harris county. If you didn't know better, you might think a tropical system came through as the totals climb to nearly a foot. Much of that fell in five hours.

Hardest hit, parts of southwest Houston. Alief picked up over 9", Sugar Land over 10". Both official airport locations set daily records with Bush at 4.34" and Hobby at 3.95". For the month, this May is the 10th wettest. Even as residents struggle to recover, more wet weather is on the way later this week.

A vigorous upper-air disturbance collided with a steadily-moving bow echo last night. But there was an extra ingredient that came into play. An odd westward-moving boundary from Louisiana created extra lift. All of those systems have since moved east and potentially, rain-weary Houstonians could get a break Tuesday and Wednesday. However, a new disturbance is slated to move across Texas by Thursday and Friday that could cause more rain. 

Check back here Friday for an update on that and the chances May 2015 could move up in the record books.

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