The National Weather Service in Brownsville advises residents of the Rio Grande Valley to monitor the progress of Tropical Depression No. 8 as it moves toward the middle Texas coast with the timing of the heaviest rains favoring Friday night through Saturday night.
Tropical Depression No. 8 is still forecast to move toward the middle Texas coast and become Tropical Storm Hanna before landfall sometime on Saturday, the National Weather Service said in a press release. For the Rio Grande Valley/Deep S. Texas Region, locally heavy rainfall and flooding is the primary expected impact.
“Regardless of where the system goes, we are expecting an increased chance of showers and thunderstorms through the weekend, many of these showers and thunderstorms will have the ability to draw heavy rainfall to Brownsville so we advise residents to prepare for that rainfall by cleaning out gutters and ditches and making sure they have spare tires put away and also keeping any buckets turned upside down so that they don’t collect water,” Joseph Tomaselli, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Brownsville, said in an interview.
Other recommendations are to consider having a backup plan for any outdoor activities beginning as early as Friday afternoon. Residents are also encouraged to fasten down lightweight objects through midday Friday since even though winds are expected to be low impact overall, stronger showers embedded in rain bands will produce gusts over 30 mph.
The press release states, the King Ranch through Falfurrias and near Hebbronville have the greatest opportunity for flooding rainfall and elsewhere, including the populated Rio Grande Valley, localized flooding is likely. Poor drainage urban locations are most at risk if torrential rains fall in a short period of time.
Locally heavy rainfall and localized flooding will become more likely beginning late Friday and continuing through at least Saturday. Tomaselli said there is probably going to be an increase in the population of mosquitoes early next week after the rainfall comes through and he recommends residents to take extra precautions.
Winds are not expected to be a concern ahead of the storm. There is a less than 1 in 10 chance of seeing 39 mph or greater sustained winds across the region and the best chance for tropical storm force winds remains over the middle Texas coast, weather officials said.
For more information, visit weather.gov/rgv.
