In The Vortex

Category: Extreme Weather

All things Extreme Weather!

  • Tropical Storm Erin to Flood Texas
    As my friend Steve Miller wrote about in his blog, another round of flooding is in store for a large part of Texas which is only now really starting to dry out from flooding rains earlier this year, after an extreme drought the previous year! This storm will potentially bring 6 to 10+ inches of rain in a short time frame from Corpus Christi, TX north-northwestward through the Texas Hill Country and into west Central Texas.

    Tropical Storm Erin Flooding

    Flash Flood watches have already been hoisted across these areas as they are often prone to flooding when receiving large amounts of rain in a short period of time. An important observation is that most if not all of the lakes and reservoirs across the area are already at or near storage capacity. I suspect you will be seeing many stories in the news in the coming days for the effects of the flooding in Texas, and the deaths that always come with it from people that are stupid enough to drive into flooded areas.Flooding is nothing to be playing around with, especially in a car. You might have crossed that road a million times before, but you don’t know if those flood waters have washed out that small bridge, or the road bed. It takes a surprisingly low amount of water to float a vehicle!

    floodpicsignfinal.jpg

    If you live near the coast or flood prone areas, here is a nice tool to help you assess your flooding potential. FloodSmart.gov and click on the #2 link on the left WHAT’S YOUR FLOOD RISK? You can input your address and retrieve a flood map of your area.

    In addition to the flooding thread there does seem to be some tornado potential as well with the added shear from the storm system. While the potential for some tornadoes to chase would normally be something I would be interested in, the high flooding potential ruins it for me, as almost all backroads and many farm to market paved roads will be unpredictably impassible, making for an extremely frustrating chase at best. Plus, there is the potential for a hurricane chase a little down the road anyway.

    Steve also touched on the even worse impacts in the future in regards to now Hurricane Dean and it’s projected path into the Gulf of Mexico and possibly on in to Texas. Should a track in to Texas verify after Erin moves through, even if Dean comes in as a Tropical Storm (more likely a hurricane if it does come all the way in to Texas) the amounts of flooding across Texas could potentially be catastrophic! In addition to the huge amounts of rain that will come with it, already saturated grounds will insure even more widespread flooding and widespread easily uprooting of trees with their roots only having soggy ground to hold on to.

    Will this be a huge 1, 2 punch for Texas?

  • Southern Plains Flooding

    It’s almost hard to believe that a year ago we were dealing with extreme drought and wildfires from MONTHS with near zero to absolute zero rainfall totals and some days with negative dewpoint figures. I am sure everyone has heard about the flooding in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. As devastating as it is…the water really WAS needed. Many lakes that were on the very of drying up or at least were on their last legs are now full and filling up again. Chasing this year I saw areas so green I almost couldn’t recognize them, perhaps greener than I have EVER seen them, especially in areas on and just off the Texas Caprock. I said at the beginning of winter that mother nature WOULD balance things out. She always does, even if we sometimes get in the way of her efforts.