Tropical Rainstorm Arthur makes landfall in Texas, raising flood risk across southern US
As Arthur moves inland over the southeastern United States, the main threats will be related to torrential rain and flash flooding, but some severe thunderstorms may also produce tornadoes into Friday.
The first named storm of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season is official as of June 17. Arthur formed just off the coast of Texas and made landfall in the afternoon.
A mass of showers and thunderstorms that has been sprawling across Texas and northern Mexico consolidated into Tropical Storm Arthur on Wednesday. As of late Wednesday, the storm had moved inland and lost wind intensity, becoming a tropical rainstorm. Life-threatening flooding, property damage and disruptions to commerce and travel may unfold as inches of rain pour down over a portion of the southeastern United States into Friday.
The gathering of moisture originates from former eastern Pacific Tropical Storm Cristina, a tropical wave of low pressure from Africa, a stalled weather front and the jet stream.
Arthur pushed well inland Wednesday night after making landfall just northeast of Matagorda Bay, Texas, early in the afternoon. It will continue to lose wind intensity.
AccuWeather dubbed the feature a tropical rainstorm earlier this week to raise public awareness of the impending threat of flooding rainfall, which will be Arthur's main impact.
For the National Hurricane Center (NHC) to declare a tropical storm has formed and assign a name, the entity must have a defined circulation with maximum sustained winds of 39 mph or greater. At 10 a.m. CDT on Tuesday, the NHC has issued a Potential Tropical Cyclone for the area of interest. As of 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Arthur's sustained winds were 45 mph.
"A significant flood risk exists each day this week, shifting slowly eastward from Texas into Wednesday to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia during the second half of the week," AccuWeather Vice President of Forecast Operations Dan DePodwin said.
Tropical Rainstorm Arthur will enhance the moisture and areas of rain already in place. So much rain can pour down (potentially 2-3 inches per hour in extreme cases) and easily overwhelm storm drains, leading to rapidly rising water on city streets and highways.
This will particularly be the case in far southern Mississippi and Alabama to the Florida Panhandle, where AccuWeather meteorologists have issued an extreme risk to lives and property. Rounds of very heavy rain on Friday can lead to life-threatening flash flooding, both urban and river, with numerous rivers already expected to reach moderate to major flood stages.
In terms of total rainfall, a broad zone exists where 4-8 inches of rain is forecast from eastern Louisiana to eastern Alabama. Within this zone, a substantial area is forecast to receive 8-12 inches of rain over a multiple-day period, with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 20 inches.
The impacts on catch basins, drainage ditches and small streams will be almost immediate. Hours to days later, that water will flow into area rivers and bayous, with numerous locations experiencing minor to moderate flooding. Depending on where the heaviest rain falls, major flooding can occur on some rivers during the latter part of this week and into early next week.
These rivers are likely to experience significant rises: Sabine, Calcasieu, Pearl, Tombigbee, Tchefuncte and Alabama, to name a few.
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Along with the risk of flooding, the tropical rainstorm will generate some wind with rough surf and choppy seas for much of this week over the northwestern third of the Gulf.
Locally severe thunderstorms will add to the strong wind gust risk with the potential for a few tornadoes or waterspouts to develop across southern Louisiana and the panhandles of Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
There is a chance that Arthur will regain some strength off the Carolina coast this weekend, should it hold together as a rainstorm over the interior Southeast. Another possibility is that a non-tropical low-pressure area will form from Arthur's residual moisture over the Atlantic.
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