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