Houston weather: Flood watch in effect as severe thunderstorms hit southeastern Texas — See affected counties
Houston weather: Severe thunderstorms trigger flood watch across southeastern Texas.
Residents in southeastern Texas, including Houston, witnessed a rocky start to the weekend as severe thunderstorms wreaked havoc across multiple cities on Saturday morning (October 25), according to Fox Weather.
Amid widespread torrential rains, wind gusts reached as high as 45-60 mph across the Houston metro area, the National Weather Service said. In Downtown Houston, a gust of 59 mph was reported, while a 64 mph gust was measured in Hempstead.
Flood watch in effect
Earlier, the National Weather Service issued a flood watch for several counties as heavy storms moved into the Houston area overnight. This extends until 5 AM (local time).
As per Fox 26 Houston, counties under flood watch include Austin, Inland Brazoria, Inland Galveston, Inland Harris, Bolivar Peninsula, Burleson, Chambers, Coastal Brazoria, Brazoria Islands, Brazos, Coastal Galveston, Colorado, Coastal Harris, Coastal Matagorda, Fort Bend, Galveston Island, Grimes, Houston, Inland Matagorda, Madison, Matagorda Islands, Montgomery, Northern Liberty among others.
The Food Watches cover most of the regions in eastern Texas, with expectations of 2-4 inches of widespread rainfall. In isolated regions, it could go up to 4-6 inches.
NWS forecasters in Houston have warned that rainfall rates in the strongest storms might “exceed 2-3" per hour. Ultimately, this can result in flash flooding if rains take place for a prolonged period.
What to expect over the weekend?
As per Fox 26 Houston, multiple strong storms are expected in the region on both Saturday and Sunday.
From 3 AM to 5 AM on Saturday, strong storms, accompanied by gusty winds, moved past the Houston region, resulting in tornado warnings as well as severe thunderstorm warnings in multiple cities.
Also Read: CenterPoint outage: When will power be restored in Houston? Latest details here
Residents can expect scattered storms, which are possible between 3 PM to 8 PM on Saturday.
Post that, another line of strong storms has been predicted from 2 AM to 6 AM on Sunday, October 26.
A level 2 out of 5 severe weather risk remains in place for southeastern Texas, covering regions like southern Louisiana, including Houston and New Orleans.
FAQs
What’s the latest update on the power outage in southeastern Texas?
As per Fox Weather, nearly 260,000 remain without electricity as dawn broke on Saturday.
When did the strongest storms hit Houston?
Most severe storms were expected between 3 AM and 9 AM on Saturday.
What’s the timeline for the flood watch?
It remains until 5 AM (local time) on Sunday.
