Severe storms to bring flood danger back to eastern Texas and Louisiana

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Bernie Rayno and Guy Pearson break down the severe storm threat coming for Texas and the Gulf Coast from May 16-17.

Transcript

00:00 It's going to be a busy next couple of days.

00:02 With that, I want to bring in our AccuWeather Severe Weather expert, Guy Pearson, from our

00:06 Severe Weather Center in Wichita, Kansas.

00:09 You know, Guy, you've already been tracking those showers and thunderstorms.

00:12 We're talking about that today.

00:14 But the problem is you've got this slow-moving upper-level low.

00:19 You have pieces ejecting out on the eastern side of it, which means we're not going to

00:23 be one and done as we go through today.

00:26 But when you look at the water vapor, what do you see?

00:29 Yeah, that's exactly it, Bernie.

00:33 We've got the upper-level low still off to the west, still moving in towards the east

00:38 here and it's coming out in bits and pieces like we have been seeing here recently.

00:43 So we're going to get a round of heavier showers and thunderstorms and certainly severe weather

00:47 today.

00:49 More energy will feed into it later tonight to help keep that severe weather threat moving

00:53 east.

00:54 And, you know, certainly damaging winds, large hail, an isolated tornado are all possible

01:01 with those severe weather modes today.

01:03 You know, yesterday afternoon, yesterday in the morning, we were talking about how we

01:06 may have to extend that moderate area.

01:09 We had it toward eastern, western Louisiana, but then we talked about the possibility that

01:14 we could be looking at a squall line that survives the overnight hours that roars across

01:19 the central Gulf Coast states.

01:21 And that's why the decision was made late yesterday morning, early afternoon by you

01:25 and the Severe Weather Center to extend that moderate risk.

01:30 All damaging winds, hail, flooding, main impacts with those.

01:35 Yep, certainly.

01:37 We get the storms that we've talked about here south of Wichita Falls moving towards

01:43 the Dallas metroplex and central Texas.

01:46 Those do look to remain fairly weak through the morning hours here, but then certainly

01:50 intensify during the early afternoon hours.

01:53 And then they'll continue to move southeast.

01:55 And then as we do get into the evening and overnight hours, yet again, we're going

02:00 to have another complex of storms that's going to move, you know, right along southern

02:05 Louisiana into what will eventually be southern Mississippi as well.

02:10 And this area has been hit not once, but twice here over the last couple weeks.

02:14 So yet again, another threat of severe weather.

02:17 And certainly wind, hail will be the main threats with those, but then leading right

02:22 into flash flooding is going to be also a major concern in these same areas.

02:26 Yeah, that area from east Texas, Guy, all the way toward Louisiana here.

02:32 You and the folks, our severe weather folks here at the AccuWeather HQ and Wichita Falls,

02:37 several inches of rain in that area, Guy.

02:41 Yep, we are certainly looking at several inches.

02:45 And you know, I know you guys talked about some of the river gauges in southeast Texas

02:49 earlier, mainly moderate and lower, but there was one that was still in major flood stage

02:55 with the Trinity River.

02:56 And unfortunately, that same area that's been impacted over the last several weeks

03:02 is going to continue to be impacted with another round of very heavy rain in some places.

03:07 And that's going to continue to lead to additional flash flooding threats.

03:11 So yeah, certainly here the river and stream levels that we've had up on the screen, you

03:15 can see that purple dot, that's the Trinity River that feeds in there and everything.

03:20 And that rain is going to fall right along that and to the north.

03:24 And so everything tributary-wise is going to feed south into that area on top of, you

03:29 know, the situation that they already have unfolding.

03:32 All right, AccuWeather severe weather expert Guy Pearson.

03:35 Guy, thanks for joining us here on AccuWeather Early.

03:38 Unfortunately, just a wet, wet pattern here across Texas.

03:43 All this energy, watch that come out here.

03:45 Look at that red from Dallas toward Houston this afternoon.

03:48 And then here's the key.

03:50 Note that energy, the red coloring, it just continues.

03:53 Here we are at nine o'clock and look at that area, Dallas, Houston, Memphis, all the way

03:57 toward Mississippi.

03:58 So what that's telling me is there's going to be enough energy to keep these thunderstorms

04:03 going during the overnight hours.

04:04 We have problems this morning, some heavy rain around Oklahoma City.

04:08 I do think these thunderstorms now just south of Wichita Falls will come into the Dallas

04:12 area later on this morning, but make no doubt about it.

04:16 There they go.

04:17 There's going to be additional thunderstorms, mostly south of Dallas here this afternoon,

04:21 but there's going to be some heavy rain in the Metroplex.

04:24 I would have planned on major travel delays later today.

04:26 Then there's that squall line.

04:28 You could see it right along Interstate 20 here between 20 and 10 across central Louisiana,

04:33 back toward the Austin area.

04:34 And watch that just continue to move eastward as we head toward this afternoon and tonight.

04:39 That squall line then all the way in the southern parts of Alabama by the time we get in tomorrow

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