Troy Kimmel Weather

Forecasting Austin and South Central Texas Weather Since 1984

TK’s Special Briefing….

Austin / Travis County and South Central Texas Weather Update #2 – FINAL STATEMENT
Prepared by Incident Meteorologist Troy Kimmel (www.troykimmelweather.com)
835am CT – Tuesday / 13 May 2014

…. Flash Flood Watch Canceled by the NWS Earlier for All of our Area ….
…. A Very Beneficial Rainfall Event Last Night Across the Area ….

The NWS/Austin-San Antonio earlier canceled the FLASH FLOOD WATCH which was in
effect until 12 noon today for the Austin area and all of the IH35 corridor.

The surface cold front has moved completely through the area this morning. However, the upper
level trough.. or line of  upper level low pressure.. still remains to our west and extends from the
eastern Dakotas south southwestward into west Texas and eastern New Mexico. With this system
still to our west,  we continue to see clouds and rain chances.. even back in the cooler air behind
the front. While the NWS and I do not expect flood producing rains today, the rain chances will
continue over the area today into tonight. I expect, based on NWS guidance, rainfall amounts of
up to 1/4 to 1/2 inch with scattered rain showers and isolated thunderstorms today and tonight.

By later tonight, the upper level trough will move east of the area and our rain chances will
decrease and clouds will break. I expect plenty of sunshine for our area beginning tomorrow
and continuing through the remainder of the week into the weekend.

During the period when heaviest rainfall occurred over the last 12 hours.. the LCRA Hydromet
gauge system indicates  that Travis County and the Austin metro area  received  a general
rainfall of  about  and  an inch and a third  /1.38″/ over northwest Travis County to nearly
four and a half inches /4.43″/ southeast of the downtown Austin area. KATT/Austin City-Camp
Mabry reported a two day rainfall of 3.27″ (2.45″ yesterday/0.82″ so far today)… Austin
Bergstrom International Airport reported a two day rainfall of 4.02″ (3.07″ yesterday – a new
daily rainfall record/0.95″ so far today)
.

The NWS/Austin-San Antonio reports some heavier rainfall reports (above 5 inches) from CoCoRaHS
observers in our area that include 7.40″ around Brushy Creek in Williamson County as well as 5.70″
reported 5 miles south southwest of  Henly in Hays County.

The Austin American Statesman reports that there were no major street closures overnight. According
to the ATXFlood website, some of the low water crossings in the Austin area were closed during the
event in the mid and late night hours.. mostly the “usual” suspect low water crossing that
tend to close when we get more substantial rainfall.  In the wake of the rainfall event, ATXFloods
reported, at any given time overnight, a maximum of 26 of the 120 reportable locations were
affected/closed.

According to an initial check with local authorities.. no low water rescues were reported overnight.

Worth noting, three lightning related fires were reported overnight. The first, around 10pm, was
in northwest Austin.. the second reported around 1am in south Austin.. and the third was an apartment
complex in east Austin just before 4am. No injuries were reported.

Finally, Austin Energy reports that 1,500 people around the Austin area were without power a little
earlier this morning.

This is my final statement on this weather event.

tk