Tag Archive for: Space City Weather

Lake Houston Area Could Be in Beta’s Crosshairs Tonight

The center of Beta is currently near Bay City and moving ENE. For the next 24 hours, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecasts maximum winds at 30 mph.

If any readers in the Lake Houston Area felt left out by Beta, tonight could be your night. According to the NHC, Harris County Meteorologist Jeff Lindner and Space City Weather, models continue to show that a heavy band of rainfall will begin to develop over the next few hours across the northern portions of Harris County.

Beta Tuesday Evening
Beta Tuesday evening at 5PM, courtesy of RadarScope. The bands are moving from SE to NW. But the forward motion of the storm is perpendicular, from SW to NE. That could push new feeder bands into the Lake Houston Area later tonight.

Current Radar Trends Show Storm Moving Toward Northeast Harris County

“Current radar trends show what may be the start of this banding feature from Downtown Houston to Jersey Village to Waller where a broken band of heavy to excessive rainfall is forming,” said Lindner at 4pm today.

He continued, “Models show this band continuing well into the evening and overnight hours across much of northern and northeastern Harris County into Liberty County. Training of heavy rainfall is likely with this banding along with flash flooding.”

Additional rainfall of 4-7 inches will be possible over the northern portions of Harris County into Liberty County and possibly southern Montgomery County with isolated totals of 10-12 inches possible.

JEFF LINDNER, HARRIS COUNTY METEOROLOGIST

(Update At 9:10 PM) The radar image above looked like this and heavy rain had started in Kingwood.

Source: RadarScope

However, in the upper San Jacinto Watershed, the expected rainfall amounts will likely produce flooding only on Cypress and Little Cypress Creeks.

In other parts of Houston, the following streams could flood:

  • Greens Bayou
  • Halls Bayou
  • Hunting Bayou
  • White Oak Bayou tributaries
  • Cedar Bayou
  • Gum Gully
  • Langham Creek
  • Horsepen Creek
  • South Mayde Creek
  • Bear Creek

The largest threat at this point is street flooding. So move your cars out of the street tonight.

West Fork Still At Normal Level

At 4PM CDT Tuesday, the West Fork San Jacinto at US59 is still nearly seven feet from coming out of its banks.

Source: Harris County Flood Warning System. The normal level of Lake Houston at this gage is 42.4 feet.

Flood Warning System Shows Effects of Heavy Training

The high rainfall gradient across Harris County should the effects of heavy training by Beta’s feeder bands during the last 48 hours. Places under the bands received 12 to 14 inches of rains. Meanwhile, the Lake Houston Area received only around an inch so far.

Beta’s heaviest rainfall until now focused on SW Harris County. Figures shown represent last 48 hours. Source: Harris County Flood Warning System. Note 13.44 inches on HW288!

Worst Likely Over for SW Harris County

Some heavy rainfall is still possible in already hard-hit southern and southwestern Harris County. However, where and potentially how much may fall in that area is uncertain.

Beta Continuing to Weaken

High-resolution visible satellite imagery, surface observations, and NOAA Doppler weather radar data from San Antonio and Houston, Texas, indicate that Beta has continued to weaken.

Cloud tops only extend up to 25,000- 30,000 ft, mainly near and northeast of the center. However, they are quite prodigious rain-producers. Rainfall totals of 13-14 inches having been measured across portions of the Houston metropolitan area thus far.

The Future of Beta

Since Beta should remain inland throughout the forecast period, the cyclone is not expected to regain tropical storm status. Beta should degenerate into a remnant low within 36 hours and dissipate over Mississippi or Alabama in 96 hours, if not sooner.

At 4 p.m. Tuesday, September 22, 2020, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued its last update on Beta.

Said Space City Weather, “The good news is that this mess will begin to clear our of here by Wednesday morning, if not sooner for some areas. The bad news is that we’ve got to get through later today and tonight.”

Posted by Bob Rehak on 9/22/2020 based on data from HCFCD, NHC and Space City Weather

1120 Days after Hurricane Harvey and 369 since Imelda

Beta Feeder Band Could Dump 1-2″ Per Hour; Street Flooding Possible

Feeder Band Approaching from South

RadarScope image as of 2PM 9/21/2020

Jeff Lindner, Harris County Meteorologist noted at 1:35 PM that a feeder band of heavy rainfall from Tropical Storm Beta is moving from northern Brazoria and northern Galveston Counties into southern Harris and Fort Bend Counties.

Lindner says that “rainfall amounts of 1-2 inches per hour will be possible under this band for the next 1-2 hours. This may lead to street flooding in typical areas of poor drainage.” Rates above 2 inches per hour will generally flood streets.

According to Space City Weather, currently, it looks like these storms may produce 2 to 3 inches of rain total as they slowly progress northward, so they could impact the afternoon and evening commute home.

Beta Weakening As It Approaches Landfall

The center of Beta is nearing landfall on the TX coast near Matagorda Island with 45mph winds.

At its 1 p.m. update, the National Hurricane Center said the storm weakened this morning. Sustained winds dropped from 50 to 45 mph. The storm’s central pressure also rose from 996 to 999 mb, another sign of weakening. Welcome signs!

Heavy Rainfall From Training Feeder Bands Will Continue

Heavy rainfall threat in bands to the east and northeast of the center will continue into tonight and Tuesday. “This threat will not subside until the center of the circulation is east of the area on Wednesday,” says Lindner.

Lindner further expects “No significant changes to the rainfall totals. Amounts of 4-8 inches are most likely with isolated higher amounts. But these higher totals will likely be strongly correlated to training feeder bands.”

Posted by Bob Rehak on 1/21/2020 based on data from the National Hurricane Center, Space City Weather and Jeff Lindner, Harris County Meteorologist.

1119 Days after Hurricane Harvey and 368 after Imelda