HOUSTON – The Houston-area was pounded with heavy storms Thursday.
Some areas saw over 12 inches of rain north of Houston, near Huntsville.
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Many area rivers and creeks are already or will be in major flood stage by tomorrow and we have potentially another round of storms that will make its way into the area Friday.
Here’s how it looks right now.
Friday storms
UPDATE: It is currently 4:30 a.m. and I just got woken out of bed by a huge crack of thunder.
As I have said a few times before, the models haven’t been doing a great job with the last few rainfall events we have seen, this is an example of that. Last night, the models didn’t pick up on storms this early. That has obviously changed, so here is what we are seeing.
Several storms have developed early this morning across the area, just north of Houston proper. Very heavy rainfall is the primary threat, but there has also been some severe weather risk with these storms in the form of hail. While I do not believe this will be a widespread issue, the risk is apparent.
Be aware of heavy rainfall in your area as these storms are moving over areas that saw a lot of rain yesterday in places like southern Montgomery County.
There could be a few scattered thunderstorms in the area Friday morning. Computer models show much of these scattered storms happening close to the coast, but a few may try to make their way into Houston proper. The chance of scattered storms will continue throughout the day.
These showers and storms could become more widespread as we progress through the morning and some could also form more inland. However, the greater rain chances come in the afternoon, where another complex of storms looks to form and head toward southeast Texas.
By early to mid-afternoon, models want to break out another complex of storms to the north of Houston. This will only lead to more flood issues as that rain will fall on watersheds that are already dealing with major flooding. This complex may act very similarly to the one we had Thursday. If you read my story last night, I laid out the potential risks associated with this line of storms. While the impacts were pretty much correct, the timing slowed down by a few hours overnight and ended up coming through later than originally thought. I imagine that could be possible here as well so take the timing of these model graphics loosely.
By later in the afternoon, this complex will try to move south and head closer to the Houston area. Very heavy rainfall is once again possible with this cluster of storms.
Right now, it doesn’t appear there is much of a threat of severe weather with these storms, but lightning and gusty winds along with the heavy rain threat will be possible.
Projected rainfall
The heaviest rainfall totals with tomorrows storms look to be just north of our area. North of Houston, in Montgomery and Walker Counties as well as around Lake Livingston, an additional two to three inches of rain appears possible.
The projected totals drop the closer you get to Houston itself.
A look ahead
Rainfall chances will decrease as we get into the weekend, although a shower or storm is still possible on Saturday and Sunday.
We dry out, but heat up as we head into next week. Temperatures look to make it into the 90s before a cool front drops them slightly before the start of next weekend.