6/2/2026 – The authoritative websites below can help you develop situational awareness of everything going on around you during hurricane season emergencies. I highly recommend bookmarking them and consulting them regularly. I list them in the order in which you will probably need them.
File photo: Hurricane Idalia in 2023
For Early Awareness of Approaching Danger
National Hurricane Center Forecasts and active storm tracking. I check it every morning during the hurricane season and look at both the 2- and 7 day outlooks. If you see something concerning, check out the pages with satellite and radar imagery. Heading to the beach? Check out NHC’s rip current map. There’s more. Much more.
Harris County Flood Warning System. Real-time rainfall, and river-channel monitoring and forecasting. The Warning System also contains near-real-time inundation mapping. The gage network extends throughout the greater Houston area. Sign up for alerts!
USGS National Water Dashboard – Shows gage heights and discharge rates of streams across the nation including dozens in the Houston area. Useful to see where water is coming from and when peaks will arrive at a point near you.
Texas Flood Viewer. Shows gages throughout Texas. Click on a dot and you can see current water level relative to various flood stages.
SJRA River Forecast Dashboard – Shows latest updates of levels on streams and rivers in the upper San Jacinto Basin. Get it at a glance. Very easy to follow. Also see SJRA’s Event Monitoring Page when floods threaten.
FloodMap.net. Enter an elevation (in meters) above current sea level to see what areas would be inundated by a flood of that height. See how floodwaters spread or recede as you increase or decrease the height. Helps visualize why some areas flood and others don’t.
City of Houston Water Flood Hazards Maps flood hazard extents for many smaller streams and ditches in neighborhoods that are not covered in other maps that focus mainly on river flooding.
Local Lakes
See who’s releasing water before, during and after the rain. Large releases can create floods of their own.
See the extensive collection of links on my links page, including an extensive list of preparedness sites.
Also, it’s always a good idea to have a weather radio handy in case disaster strikes in the middle of the night or your cell service goes out.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 6/2/2026
3199 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Image-satellite-Hurricane-Idalia-0501pmEDT-082923-NOAA-hero.jpg?fit=1275%2C717&ssl=17171275adminadmin2026-06-02 20:55:032026-06-02 20:55:04How to Increase Situational Awareness During Hurricane Season
Today is the start of hurricane season. So, it seems timely to talk about NOAA’s National Hurricane Center (NHC). NHC maintains an authoritative website with a wealth of information about everything from current storms to storms dating back 175 years.
Their home page shows no named storms expected in the next 7 days. Whew! So, I started exploring their climatology page. It contains a wealth of useful information. For instance…
When Do Named Storms Become a Weekly Occurrence?
Answer: On average, August is the first month in the season with a named storm every week. Before that, you can expect one or two named storms every month. September also averages a named storm every week, but they start tailing off after that.
When is the Statistical Peak of Hurricane Season?
In the Atlantic Basin, when averaging 100 years, the peak occurs on September 10.
When Are Named Storms Most Likely to Start Popping Up In the Gulf?
NHC offers a dozens of charts that show the number of named storms that pop up in different areas in ten days periods throughout the season. These “points of origin” charts each average the last 75 years.
June 10-20 is the first period where storms really start popping up in the Gulf.
See other charts on NHC’s climatology page to see how the season builds in certain areas and when/where activity starts to tail off in others. Different regions spawn storms at different times. Planning a vacation? Check here first.
Which Counties are Hurricane Magnets?
Harris County ranks pretty high. Between 1900 and 2010, named storms hit us somewhere between 17 and 19 times.
How Frequently Do Hurricanes Strike the Houston Region?
Our average “return period” is nine years. But keep in mind that this is an average that does not include tropical storms.
Hurricane Harvey was nine years ago. And since then, we’ve been hit by two hurricanes: Nicholas in 2021 and Beryl in 2024. So, we’ve tripled the average lately.
Remember also that Tropical Storm Imelda struck us in 2019, causing catastrophic flooding in many parts of the region. It was the fourth wettest storm in Texas history.
How Frequently Have Named Storms Hit Us in the last 100 Years at Season’s Peak?
When you add up tropical storms, hurricanes and major hurricanes, you get “named storms.” If you add up those categories, you see that Houston falls into the band of areas that have received 30-49 named storms per hundred years during September alone (the peak of the season). That’s one about every two or three years, which is consistent with the observation above about Harvey, Nicholas, Beryl, and Imelda.
Houston is not as bad as some other areas. The Mississippi Delta, the Atlantic Coast of Florida, and North Carolina all have higher rates.
Is Tropical Activity Increasing?
It appears to be. But be careful. If you filter out the statistical outliers (2005 with 28 storms and 2020 with 30), any increase is much less pronounced. Also consider that many storms before the satellite era may have escaped detection or reliable measurement.
An obvious conclusion from this chart is that tropical activity is cyclical. We build for a few years, then drop for a few before the cycle starts building again.
The graphic below shows that despite occasional pop-up storms in the Gulf and storms that cross Mexico/Central America, the vast majority start off the coast of Africa. Then they travel west across the Atlantic. As they approach the Caribbean, the Coriolis force makes them turn north and recurve like a boomerang.
What to Do?
Prepare. On Thursday, June 4, from 5-6:30 PM, Houston City Council Member Fred Flickinger will host an open house at Kingwood Community Center (4102 Rustic Woods Drive, Kingwood TX 77345) with:
Houston Office of Emergency Management
CenterPoint Energy
Comcast
xfinity
UnionPacific
Trees for Houston
According to the Council Member, the event will feature practical safety information about resources designed to help you, your family and your neighborhood prepare with confidence, such as:
Safe vegetation practices and the Right Tree, Right Place approach
When and why to call 811 before you dig
How to stay safe around railways and utility equipment
Hurricane preparedness tips and local resources
Flickinger said, “Ask questions, explore helpful information and share what matters most in your neighborhood so we can better support the community we serve.”
One of the first things people often lose in Kingwood is power when trees fall against overhead lines. And with the loss of power comes loss of communication. So it’s important to have a plan before that happens.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 6/1/2026
3198 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Atlantic_Storm_Count.jpg?fit=1386%2C768&ssl=17681386adminadmin2026-06-01 19:13:402026-06-01 19:13:41National Hurricane Center: Your Go-To Source for Reliable Storm Information
5/31/26 – Harris County Flood Control District’s (HCFCD) SAFER study is now entering Phase 2 of 5. SAFER stands for Solutions for Advancing Floodplain Evaluation and Resilience. It is a long-range planning effort to help Harris County and its communities become more resilient to future flood events.
HCFCD hopes to do that by developing large-scale flood-risk reduction strategies that are:
Eligible for federal funding (65% federal/35% local cost sharing)
Reflect local priorities (engineering, environmental, community)
In Phase 1, HCFCD scoped the study and screened preliminary alternatives.
Phase 2 will evaluate combinations of those alternatives, resulting in a tentative plan.
In the remaining phases, SAFER staff will:
Draft a feasibility report and environmental impact statement
Submit the final report and environmental impact statement to the Army Corps
Coordinate efforts to obtain Congressional authorization.
Study Area Includes 11 of 23 Watersheds
The SAFER study includes 11 of 23 watersheds that cover roughly half of Harris County.
Measures Being Considered for Inclusion in Comprehensive Plan
Staff is looking at alternatives that improve flood-handling capabilities of main-stem bayous and upstream tributaries.
They are integrating solutions across multiple watersheds and comparing traditional solutions, such as channel widening, to more novel solutions for Harris County, such as tunnels. The slide below shows types of measures they are considering.
Phase 2 analysis will answer the following questions.
The next two slides show the type of alternatives being considered in the various watersheds.
The staff hopes to finish evaluating alternatives by the third quarter of 2026. That will involve economic and hydrologic evaluations of each alternative. They then hope to brief the Army Corps on their tentative plan by the end of this year or beginning of next.
Phase 3 (drafting the feasibility report) should start in early 2027.
Observations
This study could someday result in flood-mitigation solutions that make a large portion of the county’s population safer. On the plus side, the SAFER study will result in a comprehensive evaluation of the most cost-effective solutions from a wide range of options.
But on the minus side, it covers less than half the watersheds in the county. The omitted watersheds, such as the San Jacinto, Spring Creek, Luce Bayou and Cedar Bayou are some of the fastest growing areas in the region. Omitting them now will make floodplain preservation and other conservation measures more difficult and expensive later.
HCFCD chose the 11 watersheds because of “existing federal interest, meaning the federal government has authorized work in these specific watersheds at some point.” Their reasoning? That makes those areas “better positioned to receive approval and funding from the Federal government.”
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/SAFER-Study-Overview_Page_09.jpg?fit=2000%2C1125&ssl=111252000adminadmin2026-05-31 13:30:372026-05-31 13:33:34HCFCD’s SAFER Study Now Evaluating Alternatives for Tentative Plan
How to Increase Situational Awareness During Hurricane Season
6/2/2026 – The authoritative websites below can help you develop situational awareness of everything going on around you during hurricane season emergencies. I highly recommend bookmarking them and consulting them regularly. I list them in the order in which you will probably need them.
For Early Awareness of Approaching Danger
National Hurricane Center Forecasts and active storm tracking. I check it every morning during the hurricane season and look at both the 2- and 7 day outlooks. If you see something concerning, check out the pages with satellite and radar imagery. Heading to the beach? Check out NHC’s rip current map. There’s more. Much more.
National Weather Service/Houston-Galveston Office Get current weather info and warnings for our area.
National Weather Service/Storm Prediction Center Covers watches/warnings nationwide, including tornadoes often associated with tropical events.
Impending Floods
Harris County Flood Warning System. Real-time rainfall, and river-channel monitoring and forecasting. The Warning System also contains near-real-time inundation mapping. The gage network extends throughout the greater Houston area. Sign up for alerts!
USGS National Water Dashboard – Shows gage heights and discharge rates of streams across the nation including dozens in the Houston area. Useful to see where water is coming from and when peaks will arrive at a point near you.
Texas Flood Viewer. Shows gages throughout Texas. Click on a dot and you can see current water level relative to various flood stages.
SJRA River Forecast Dashboard – Shows latest updates of levels on streams and rivers in the upper San Jacinto Basin. Get it at a glance. Very easy to follow. Also see SJRA’s Event Monitoring Page when floods threaten.
FloodMap.net. Enter an elevation (in meters) above current sea level to see what areas would be inundated by a flood of that height. See how floodwaters spread or recede as you increase or decrease the height. Helps visualize why some areas flood and others don’t.
City of Houston Water Flood Hazards Maps flood hazard extents for many smaller streams and ditches in neighborhoods that are not covered in other maps that focus mainly on river flooding.
Local Lakes
See who’s releasing water before, during and after the rain. Large releases can create floods of their own.
Lake Houston:
Coastal Water Authority
Water Data for Texas – Houston
Lake Conroe
San Jacinto River Authority Dashboard
Storm Event Information
Water Data For Texas – Conroe
Lake Livingston
Trinity River Authority Page for Lake Livingston
Water Data for Texas – Livingston
For More Information
See the extensive collection of links on my links page, including an extensive list of preparedness sites.
Also, it’s always a good idea to have a weather radio handy in case disaster strikes in the middle of the night or your cell service goes out.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 6/2/2026
3199 Days since Hurricane Harvey
National Hurricane Center: Your Go-To Source for Reliable Storm Information
Today is the start of hurricane season. So, it seems timely to talk about NOAA’s National Hurricane Center (NHC). NHC maintains an authoritative website with a wealth of information about everything from current storms to storms dating back 175 years.
Their home page shows no named storms expected in the next 7 days. Whew! So, I started exploring their climatology page. It contains a wealth of useful information. For instance…
When Do Named Storms Become a Weekly Occurrence?
Answer: On average, August is the first month in the season with a named storm every week. Before that, you can expect one or two named storms every month. September also averages a named storm every week, but they start tailing off after that.
When is the Statistical Peak of Hurricane Season?
In the Atlantic Basin, when averaging 100 years, the peak occurs on September 10.
When Are Named Storms Most Likely to Start Popping Up In the Gulf?
NHC offers a dozens of charts that show the number of named storms that pop up in different areas in ten days periods throughout the season. These “points of origin” charts each average the last 75 years.
June 10-20 is the first period where storms really start popping up in the Gulf.
See other charts on NHC’s climatology page to see how the season builds in certain areas and when/where activity starts to tail off in others. Different regions spawn storms at different times. Planning a vacation? Check here first.
Which Counties are Hurricane Magnets?
Harris County ranks pretty high. Between 1900 and 2010, named storms hit us somewhere between 17 and 19 times.
How Frequently Do Hurricanes Strike the Houston Region?
Our average “return period” is nine years. But keep in mind that this is an average that does not include tropical storms.
Hurricane Harvey was nine years ago. And since then, we’ve been hit by two hurricanes: Nicholas in 2021 and Beryl in 2024. So, we’ve tripled the average lately.
Remember also that Tropical Storm Imelda struck us in 2019, causing catastrophic flooding in many parts of the region. It was the fourth wettest storm in Texas history.
And who could forget Tropical Storm Allison in 2001? It doesn’t take a hurricane to dump lots of rain.
How Frequently Have Named Storms Hit Us in the last 100 Years at Season’s Peak?
When you add up tropical storms, hurricanes and major hurricanes, you get “named storms.” If you add up those categories, you see that Houston falls into the band of areas that have received 30-49 named storms per hundred years during September alone (the peak of the season). That’s one about every two or three years, which is consistent with the observation above about Harvey, Nicholas, Beryl, and Imelda.
Houston is not as bad as some other areas. The Mississippi Delta, the Atlantic Coast of Florida, and North Carolina all have higher rates.
Is Tropical Activity Increasing?
It appears to be. But be careful. If you filter out the statistical outliers (2005 with 28 storms and 2020 with 30), any increase is much less pronounced. Also consider that many storms before the satellite era may have escaped detection or reliable measurement.
An obvious conclusion from this chart is that tropical activity is cyclical. We build for a few years, then drop for a few before the cycle starts building again.
Here’s the raw data behind this chart in a tabular format.
Where Do Most Storms Start?
The graphic below shows that despite occasional pop-up storms in the Gulf and storms that cross Mexico/Central America, the vast majority start off the coast of Africa. Then they travel west across the Atlantic. As they approach the Caribbean, the Coriolis force makes them turn north and recurve like a boomerang.
What to Do?
Prepare. On Thursday, June 4, from 5-6:30 PM, Houston City Council Member Fred Flickinger will host an open house at Kingwood Community Center (4102 Rustic Woods Drive, Kingwood TX 77345) with:
According to the Council Member, the event will feature practical safety information about resources designed to help you, your family and your neighborhood prepare with confidence, such as:
Flickinger said, “Ask questions, explore helpful information and share what matters most in your neighborhood so we can better support the community we serve.”
One of the first things people often lose in Kingwood is power when trees fall against overhead lines. And with the loss of power comes loss of communication. So it’s important to have a plan before that happens.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 6/1/2026
3198 Days since Hurricane Harvey
HCFCD’s SAFER Study Now Evaluating Alternatives for Tentative Plan
5/31/26 – Harris County Flood Control District’s (HCFCD) SAFER study is now entering Phase 2 of 5. SAFER stands for Solutions for Advancing Floodplain Evaluation and Resilience. It is a long-range planning effort to help Harris County and its communities become more resilient to future flood events.
HCFCD hopes to do that by developing large-scale flood-risk reduction strategies that are:
In Phase 1, HCFCD scoped the study and screened preliminary alternatives.
Phase 2 will evaluate combinations of those alternatives, resulting in a tentative plan.
In the remaining phases, SAFER staff will:
Study Area Includes 11 of 23 Watersheds
The SAFER study includes 11 of 23 watersheds that cover roughly half of Harris County.
Measures Being Considered for Inclusion in Comprehensive Plan
Staff is looking at alternatives that improve flood-handling capabilities of main-stem bayous and upstream tributaries.
They are integrating solutions across multiple watersheds and comparing traditional solutions, such as channel widening, to more novel solutions for Harris County, such as tunnels. The slide below shows types of measures they are considering.
Phase 2 analysis will answer the following questions.
The next two slides show the type of alternatives being considered in the various watersheds.
The full 27-page presentation (4-meg download) shows how the staff is evaluating several combinations of various alternatives in representative watersheds.
The staff hopes to finish evaluating alternatives by the third quarter of 2026. That will involve economic and hydrologic evaluations of each alternative. They then hope to brief the Army Corps on their tentative plan by the end of this year or beginning of next.
Phase 3 (drafting the feasibility report) should start in early 2027.
Observations
This study could someday result in flood-mitigation solutions that make a large portion of the county’s population safer. On the plus side, the SAFER study will result in a comprehensive evaluation of the most cost-effective solutions from a wide range of options.
But on the minus side, it covers less than half the watersheds in the county. The omitted watersheds, such as the San Jacinto, Spring Creek, Luce Bayou and Cedar Bayou are some of the fastest growing areas in the region. Omitting them now will make floodplain preservation and other conservation measures more difficult and expensive later.
HCFCD chose the 11 watersheds because of “existing federal interest, meaning the federal government has authorized work in these specific watersheds at some point.” Their reasoning? That makes those areas “better positioned to receive approval and funding from the Federal government.”
I guess the Army Corps dredging in the San Jacinto didn’t count.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 5/31/26
3197 Days since Hurricane Harvey