Heavy rain, major flooding reported north of the Houston area; Here’s the latest

HOUSTON – Storms are moving across parts of the Houston area Thursday.

These storms have already dropped very heavy amounts of rainfall in a short amount of time.

Some areas should be able to handle this rainfall, but several places in particular are having major problems as the rainfall in these areas brings forth flooding issues.

• Flood watch in place for Houston, SE Texas tonight and early Thursday morning

Here is the latest information.

Thursday storms

A line of storms impacted areas to the north of Houston overnight into the early morning hours Thursday.

• Voluntary evacuation for several NE Harris County neighborhoods along E. Fork of San Jacinto River

Places like Brazoria, Galveston, and Chambers Counties need to be alert for a potentially disruptive line of storms in this time frame.

Flood threat

• Authorities monitoring for major flooding along E. Fork of San Jacinto River in NE Harris, SE Montgomery Counties

Just north of Houston, our computer models are showing the possibility for some areas to receive as much as eight inches of rainfall in the next two days. This is a problem. Many of these areas, particularly around Lake Livingston, saw nearly a foot of rain at the beginning of the week. That water has been coming down the rivers in the area, namely the Trinity and the East Fork of the San Jacinto River.

This has led to major flooding in several areas along those watersheds and this will only contribute to more problems in those same areas.

The good news is if we have a substantial amount of rainfall in our western areas, and even the western part of Harris County, those creeks, bayous, and rivers should be able to handle the rainfall as they did not receive a whole lot Sunday night into Monday morning.

Because of the threat of additional heavy rainfall, a flood watch has been issued for a large portion of southeast Texas. This includes Harris County. Street flooding will be possible and flooding on area rivers and creeks will only be exacerbated by any additional rainfall we receive.

Severe weather threat

I do want to briefly mention the threat of severe weather Thursday. While the flood threat will be the bigger story, there is the potential for a few severe storms capable of producing damaging winds. The tornado threat is very low, but not completely zero.

The severe weather threat is going to be dependent on how fast these storms move. If the line of storms moves faster than currently expected, the severe weather threat will increase and the flood threat may be a little bit less than currently anticipated.

If the line is slower, the severe weather threat should also decrease.