STORMY WEATHER THREATENS WEEKEND
Rainfall amounts of no more than half an inch can be expected.
After a string of mild but sunny spring days this week, the National Weather Service says Austin should prepare for an overcast Friday and a stormy Saturday.
As of Thursday afternoon, forecasters were expecting mostly cloudy skies today with milder than normal temperatures reaching 73.
Southeast winds blowing in from the Gulf at 10 mph in the evening would usher in scattered showers into the overnight hours, the weather service said.
On Saturday – the day of the Texas Longhorns’ Orange-White football game and the second day of MotoGP at Circuit of the Americas – thunderstorms are likely to roll into the Austin metro area, “with a low-end chance of these being severe,” weather service meteorologist Cory Van Pelt said.
The forecast calls for a 60 percent chance of rain and thunderstorms, occurring from the late morning to early afternoon as a cold front sweeps through Central Texas, Van Pelt said.
Although the clouds generally will be moving in the same easterly direction, the storms will be largely isolated, producing widespread rainfall amounts of no more than a half-inch.
“Ahead of that (front) it’ll be messy-looking with storms here and there,” Van Pelt said. “It won’t add up to a lot.”
Lightning and gusty winds appear to be the biggest threats along with the rain, according to Van Pelt. That could be problematic for Circuit of the Americas, which will be holding its sec- ond-biggest annual motor- sports event this weekend. MotoGP officials are aware of Saturday’s forecast for the qualifying races. Lightning or a torrential downpour could bring track activity to a halt, but rain alone generally doesn’t stop the show.
The storms, though, are most likely to produce rain along and east of the Inter- state 35 corridor, Van Pelt said. He said the Hill Country could see some rain, but areas west of Austin — where tributaries feed the critical water supplies in the High- land Lakes — won’t see much moisture.
About 65 percent of the state was under drought conditions, according to the latest data from the U.S. Drought Monitor. While much of Travis, Williamson, Blanco and Burnet counties were in moderate drought, Hays, Bastrop and Caldwell counties mostly were just abnormally dry, the lowest level on the Drought Monitor’s scale. Areas in moderate drought can experience dam- aged crops or water shortages in wells and reservoirs.
Flash floods from the Saturday storms also shouldn’t be much of an issue in Central Texas because the ground is dry enough to absorb the expected amount of rain, Van Pelt said.
The storms are likely to subside Saturday night, so Sunday should be sunny and breezy with temperatures as warm as 77 degrees. Sunday night could see increased cloudiness but temperatures should stay above 54 degrees, forecasters said.