Austin could see up to an inch of rainfall through end of week
Storms sweeping into region could spill rain from Del Rio all the way to the coast in the next few days.
Potentially heavy downpours are in the forecast for South and Central Texas for the first time since Hurricane Harvey ripped through the state at the end of August.
But the storms will continue to weaken as they move toward the Gulf Coast, sparing the areas that were hardest hit when Harvey struck a month ago.
National Weather Service meteorologist Brett Williams said forecasters are eyeing storms sweeping into the region from Mexico that could spill rain from Del Rio all the way to the coast over the next few days.
The latest forecast calls for widespread rainfall totals of 4 to 6 inches in the area of Del Rio, Eagle Pass and Rocksprings by Thursday, 2 to 4 inches as far east as Kerrville, and 1 to 2 inches through most of Central Texas.
A flash flood watch will be in effect through 7 p.m. Thursday for a large swath of Texas due west of San Antonio — Val Verde, Edwards, Real, Kerr, Bandera, Kinney, Uvalde, Medina, Maverick, Zavala, Frio and Dimmit counties — where meteorologists expect rainfall totals to reach between 10 and 12 inches in isolated areas.
However, in Austin and along the Interstate 35 corridor, forecasters aren’t expecting flooding to be an issue.
“We’re looking at probably an inch of rain in Austin through the end of the week,” Williams said. “It’s possible that the threat could shift a little bit further east, but at this point we are not expecting any flooding issues.”
Central Texas has seen consistently dry conditions since Harvey, with Austin’s main weather station at Camp Mabry reporting only a few hundredths of an inch of rain this month. According to weather service historical data, September normally gets at least 2 inches of rain by now.
Nevertheless, now that showers are bearing down, soil in the area is ready to soak up moisture, which would further lessen flood risks.
Austin has a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and then a 30 percent chance Friday before conditions clear up heading into the weekend.
“For this week, because we’re in kind of a rainier pattern with a lot of moisture, we’re not going to get all that warm,” Williams said. “Highs will be in the midto upper 80s through most of the week.”
But just as storms dissipate throughout the region late in the week, a cold front is expected to arrive and pull temperatures down
into the lower to mid-80s.
“It’s looking like (the front) is going to stall out on Tuesday into Wednesday morning in the DFW area to south of Midland,” Williams said. “Eventually, it will make the final push through the area early Thursday morning.”
Though temperatures will come down a bit, Williams said average daytime highs in Austin don’t typically drop into the 70s until Oct. 25, so more warm days are ahead as we press deeper into the fall.