Tropical disturbance over Texas to trigger flash flood risk into this weekend

Part of Texas is at risk for dangerous flash flooding as a large tropical disturbance packed with showers and thunderstorms moves westward across the state this weekend.

“Following downpours that have been pestering central and coastal Texas since last week, a tropical disturbance has moved in from the Gulf of Mexico,” said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.

Tropical disturbances, or tropical waves as they are called among the meteorological community, move westward off the coast of Africa. Some develop into tropical storms and hurricanes.

"This particular disturbance has run out of time for becoming a tropical depression or storm," Sosnowski said.

"However, this will not stop the slow inland progression of drenching downpours," Sosnowski said.

The next name on the list of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season is Kirk.

“Aside from most likely minor impacts from rough surf and rip currents, flooding may be a significant threat due to the slow-moving nature of the storm, although impacts will be substantially fewer than records set during Harvey,” Sosnowski said.

Expect downpours to be heavy enough and repeat enough to cause urban and flash flooding.

Through Friday night, the downpours will be concentrated from the coast to near the Interstate-35 corridor.

As the weekend progresses, the downpours will shift farther inland.
By Sunday, downpours and the risk of isolated flash flooding will reach the Big Bend area.

At the very least, people in the area should anticipate delays and disruptions to travel and outdoor activities toward the end of the week.

This includes, but is not limited to, Houston; Corpus Christi; San Antonio; and Brownsville, Texas.

During the first 13 days of month, San Antonio had already received nearly four times its total normal September rainfall. The city could see another few inches by the end of the weekend.

Areas in Mexico bordering Texas are also at risk for flooding rainfall.

All interests from Texas and northeastern Mexico should stay up to date with the latest developments on the tropics by continuing to check back to AccuWeather.com and downloading the free AccuWeather app.

Drenching rain would not be bad for everyone. There are locations in central Texas that could benefit from non-flooding rainfall, due to long-term drought conditions.

Following the risk of flooding downpours from the yet, unnamed tropical feature, there is a chance that Isaac, currently cruising the Caribbean, may threaten part of the upper Gulf coast next weekend as a hurricane.

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