National Hurricane Center Issues Flood Watch for Upper Texas, Louisiana
The National Hurricane Center issued a flood watch for portions of the Upper Texas and southwestern Louisiana coasts Tuesday morning as Tropical Storm Watches went up and a slow-moving disturbance lingered near South Texas. The system, Invest 90L, was designated Potential Tropical Cyclone One at 11 a.m. EDT.
Heavy rain had already soaked the flood-prone area before the disturbance arrived, and additional rainfall totals could exceed 10 inches by late this week. Residents along the Gulf Coast were urged to remain prepared for heavy rainfall.
Potential Tropical Cyclone One
The designation gives forecasters a way to issue tropical storm watches and warnings even before a system becomes a tropical depression or tropical storm. That is what happened with 90L, which sat just inland along the south Texas coast Tuesday morning and still had little chance of developing while its center remained over land.
Satellite imagery showed the center staying near South Texas, while water temperatures near the coast were at least 83.5°F, or 29°C. The system could move over Gulf waters later Tuesday or Wednesday near the Texas coast.
Upper Texas and Louisiana
One track from the GFS model showed a brief closed circulation developing later Tuesday just southwest of Corpus Christi, with the deepest convection spreading along the southeast Texas coast and into southern Louisiana through Thursday morning. That projection also put the highest rain totals across parts of southern Louisiana and southern Alabama, with isolated locations receiving more than nine inches.
The European model showed a broader system that hugged the central and southeastern Texas coastline through Wednesday afternoon. It kept much of the Texas coast under broad convection and showed rainfall totals could exceed six inches across many areas.
John Doe in the rain zone
John Doe was among the people watching the system from the affected coast as the setup pointed toward more rain on top of ground that had already been drenched. The practical concern for readers in the watch area is not just wind, but the speed with which flooding could turn dangerous if the heaviest bands train over the same places.
The next shift to watch is whether the center gets back over Gulf waters later Tuesday or Wednesday, which would give the system a better shot at organizing before it moves back over land. Until then, the watch area from Upper Texas into southwestern Louisiana is dealing with the most immediate threat: more rain, quickly.
