HOUSTON – Tropical Storm Alberto made landfall in Mexico around 7 a.m. Thursday and has rapidly weakened, leaving only remnants behind.
Recommended Videos
With one system gone, our eyes now turn to potentially another system that could develop in the same area Alberto did this week.
Alberto recap:
The heaviest rainfall from Alberto fell southwest of the Houston area, but some areas still saw a decent amount of rain from the system.
Interestingly, one band from Alberto set up over areas just west and northwest of Houston, leading to estimated rainfall totals being higher than some areas on the coast, which is where it was believed the heaviest rainfall would fall in our area.
Further southwest, the coast is where the heaviest rainfall totals fell. Some areas near Rockport and Corpus Christi saw up to seven inches of rainfall from Alberto. While flooding was a problem down there, these areas needed the rain a lot more than southeast Texas so it was good that they did get some.
Coastal flooding was a problem in southeast Texas from Alberto as onshore flow and higher than normal tides caused water to come inland. The tide should continue to decrease over the next few days.
Next tropical system:
As Alberto dissipates, another disturbance is gaining strength in the Caribbean. This area of disturbed weather will cross the Yucatan Peninsula, emerging over the Bay of Campeche in the same area where Alberto developed.
A tropical depression could form this weekend and may end up becoming our next named storm, depending on whether or not another area of disturbed weather over the Atlantic gets there first. The system in the Atlantic won’t affect our weather here in southeast Texas.
Now the big question. Will the Houston area see any impacts from this next system coming into the Gulf? Right now, its too soon to be sure completely, but all indications are that southeast Texas will see little impact from this next system. An area of high pressure, which also helped steer the core of Alberto into Mexico, will still be in place this weekend.
This high pressure system will steer the next system into Mexico as well. Most of the rainfall should also be confined to Mexico with South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley perhaps seeing some rainfall from it as well.
Aside from elevated surf at the beach, it doesn’t appear that this next system will have much impact on us. These tropical systems can be tricky to forecast, however, so we will keep an eye on if anything changes in terms of the rainfall department.