WATCH: National Hurricane Center Holds Press Briefing On Tropical Storm Alberto

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NWC Director Michael Brennan holds a press briefing on Tropical Storm Alberto.

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Transcript

00:00Good morning, everybody. This is Mike Brennan here at the National Hurricane Center. It's

00:03about 10.30 a.m. Central Time on Wednesday, June 19th. Coming on this morning to give

00:08you an update on what is now Tropical Storm Alberto, which has changed a little bit in

00:12structure overnight and early this morning. It's become a lot better organized and is

00:15now a tropical storm. We have the center of the system centered here over the still over

00:21the southern Gulf of Mexico, but you can see the circulations become much better defined

00:26as compared to yesterday. And we have a lot more shower and thunderstorm activity developing

00:29near the center. So now this system meets all the criteria to be called a tropical cyclone.

00:34So it's now a tropical storm. Given the name Alberto, the first one of the Atlantic hurricane

00:38season, maximum sustained winds are still around 40 miles per hour. But in terms of

00:43the impacts, really nothing has changed. We're still expecting widespread heavy rainfall,

00:48flash flooding, coastal flooding along much of the coast of Texas, tropical storm conditions

00:53and a risk of tornadoes. And we'll go through all those hazards here this morning. As we

00:56zoom out a little bit, you can still see that while the center of Alberto is centered

00:59here over the south southern portion of the Gulf of Mexico, the heavy weather and the

01:06heavy rainfall is way to the north still with this band of tropical storm force winds and

01:11rain moving along the Texas coast, moderate to heavy rainfall here in these bands. And

01:15that rainfall is going to continue through the day today and into tonight and even into

01:20Thursday as it moves, as the system moves gradually to the west and makes landfall along

01:25the coast of Mexico early Thursday morning. But right now, if you take a look at the radar,

01:30you can see this expanse of moderate to heavy rainfall moving onshore. The heaviest rainfall

01:35right now is sort of in the middle Texas coast near the Corpus Christi area, north of Brownsville.

01:40You see these greens and yellows. So we're expecting the rainfall intensity to pick up

01:44during the day today. We could see in some locations two to three inches of rainfall

01:49per hour. Some locations could approach four inches per hour. So even though parts of this

01:53area have been pretty dry over the last few weeks, those types of rainfall rates, especially

01:58if they occur in urban areas, can result in some quickly developing flash flooding conditions.

02:02So as a result of that, and we have a flood watches in effect from Galveston across to

02:08Victoria south of San Antonio through Corpus Christi, Laredo, Eagle Pass, down to Brownsville

02:14for the potential of that flooding and flash flooding to develop through the day today

02:18into tonight and into Thursday. The rainfall totals, we're still expecting widespread totals

02:23of five to ten inches, especially south of a line from say roughly Galveston to San Antonio

02:29down here in south Texas near Corpus Christi west of Brownsville. Could see some isolated

02:33totals a little higher than ten inches or so. But this type of heavy rainfall, especially

02:39if it occurs again with those high rainfall rates in a short period of time, could result

02:42in some flash flooding. And the highest risk of that flash flooding today is in this red

02:46area. This is through tomorrow morning through Thursday morning from Victoria to Corpus Christi,

02:50Laredo, Brownsville, with the risk of flash flooding extending north of that area to

02:55just south of San Antonio up into the Houston Galveston area. As we go from the day Thursday

03:00into Friday, that risk of flash flooding will continue across deep south Texas and then

03:04spread a little bit westward as well. So remember, if you're out and about and you come across

03:09a flooded roadway, don't drive into that water. You don't know how deep it is. It only takes

03:14a few inches of moving water to move your car. And please don't drive around barricades.

03:18Turn around, don't drown, don't become a statistic driving into a flooded roadway.

03:23On the coastal flooding front, we've seen some significant inundation along portions

03:26of the Texas coast this morning with this morning's high tide cycle. We're still expecting

03:31that sort of two to four feet of inundation all the way into tomorrow morning's high tide

03:35cycle across portions of the Texas coast from Sargent up to Sabine Pass, including Galveston

03:40Bay. The water level actually at San Luis Pass got up to about three or four feet above

03:45ground level this morning with the NOAA tide gauge there around the time of high tide.

03:51And we can still see inundation of one to three feet south of Sargent all the way down

03:54to the mouth of the Rio Grande and east of Sabine Pass across portions of southwestern

03:58Louisiana. But again, coastal flood warnings continue for the entire coast from southwest

04:04Louisiana all the way down through the Texas coast. Very dangerous surf and rip current

04:08conditions along much of the northwestern Gulf Coast is not a place you want to be out

04:11in the water today or into tomorrow as well.

04:15On the wind front, again, Alberto has a very, very large wind field. Tropical storm force

04:20winds extend out as far as this orange area goes, hundreds of miles, more than 300 miles

04:25to the north of the center. That's why we have that tropical storm warning in effect

04:28all the way from Port O'Connor down to the mouth of the Rio Grande through northern Mexico.

04:32And you can see the track forecast of the center, even though the center is going to

04:35be moving due west toward the coast of Mexico, those tropical storm conditions are going

04:39to continue along much of the Texas coast from just south and west of Galveston down

04:43through Corpus Christi down to Brownsville. Everywhere you see in blue here is at risk

04:47of seeing those tropical storm force winds, especially in gusts, especially with squalls

04:51with those rain bands as they move on shore.

04:54There is also a risk of tornadoes, especially later today and into tonight across everywhere

04:59you see in green here in southeastern and southern Texas, Houston, Galveston, San Antonio

05:03down to Corpus Christi and Brownsville. So again, multiple hazards in play. As Alberto

05:09does move inland, the conditions will gradually start to improve along the Texas coast as

05:15we go through the day tomorrow. But we still got at least another 24 hours of relatively

05:19hazardous conditions, heavy rainfall, coastal flooding, and the threat of tropical storm

05:23force winds.

05:24So make sure you have multiple ways to get emergency information, weather alerts through

05:29NOAA Weather Radio, through the wireless emergency alerts on your smartphone or through weather

05:33apps and make sure you stay safe through today and tonight. We'll be back with more updates

05:37later on Tropical Storm Alberto. I'm Mike Brennan here at the National Hurricane Center.

WATCH: National Hurricane Center Holds Press Briefing On Tropical Storm Alberto

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