Summer is here. Early. Dagnabbit! So, while we all find ways to keep cool, let’s look back at some historical weather events and how certain tropical weather systems impacted us. After all it may take some kind of wet tropical system later this summer to break down the death ridge that’s already set up over us.
For our area if we are going to experience tropical weather, we tend to get hit by early season Atlantic/Gulf systems which hit the Texas Coastal Bend or points south and migrate into south central Texas (example: Harvey in 2017). Or, it’s an El Nino year and Pacific systems which hit the Pacific coast of Mexico in the fall, barrel northeastward, and move over Texas. Sometimes those Pacific systems will combine with slow moving cold fronts to really create havoc over Texas! As the summer months move on, tropical landfalling systems historically hit further northeast along the Texas coast or even Louisiana (examples: Rita in 2005 and Ike in 2008). And then once the first real cold front comes through in September and the westerlies kick in, it usually means “Atlantic tropical season over” for most if not all of Texas. Atlantic and Gulf systems then usually impact the central and eastern Gulf Coast areas at that point.
So here is a summary of some of the more interesting events:
Hurricane Harvey (August 2017): The Coastal Bend and Southeast Texas will never forget this killer hurricane which ended up being the costliest hurricane in Texas history in terms of damage. Five feet of rain fell over several days near Nederland. That is not typo – five feet! Here in our area we saw a sharp delineation in rainfall totals. Spots like Lakeway in western Travis County received 2.66” while in far southeastern parts of the county, 10.68” of rain fell. We also saw gusty winds into the 40-50 mph range.
Tropical Storm Bill (June 2015): this early season storm made landfall at Matagorda Island and moved north-northwest up through Texas. “Bill” as a tropical depression on his northerly path went east of the Austin area but some 5-8” of rain fell in parts of the county.
Tropical Storm Lee (September 2011): this one might catch you off guard. We never had any rain from Lee. In fact, Lee hit Louisiana and moved north through the western parts of the state. But what Lee did do was combine with high pressure over the Plains to create a wind tunnel effect over Texas. Winds 30-40 mph from the north ended up crashing wires together, which created sparking, which caused the terrible Bastrop wildfires (not to mention others like Spicewood). Our area had just finished a brutally hot and dry summer and was in the throes of a nasty drought. Then Lee hit, helped create those winds, and the rest is history.
Tropical Storm Hermine (September 2010): Made landfall just south of the Texas-Mexico border and then moved north-northwest up into Texas. This was another Gulf system that was officially a tropical depression when it moved over Austin. The airport recorded 4.32” of rain from Hermine while Camp Mabry had 7.58”. Jollyville recorded 13.14” of rain. But it was our friends in Georgetown though that suffered the worst with close to 16 ½” of rain falling, causing more than 100 high water rescues by first responders. This was a classic case of what is called a “core rain event.” Tropical systems once they make landfall expand and contract over the day-night cycle. When they contract at night, they tend to dump prodigious amounts of rain underneath them. That’s what happened with Hermine. (photos below from the Austin American-Statesman)
Hurricane Madeline (October 1998): this was a Pacific hurricane which hit Mexico but the storm remnants moved into Texas and combined with a slow moving front. The creation was a terrible rain/flooding event which impacted the Austin area and much of southeast Texas. Torrential rains produced damaging floods on Onion Creek, the Colorado River, San Marcos River, Guadalupe River, and San Antonio River. A 35-inch rainfall was recorded near San Marcos. Travis County on average saw between 8 ½ and 9 ½ inches of rain over three days. There were 31 fatalities in this event.
Hurricane Allen (August 1980): this monster storm was a Category 5 hurricane when it was about 200 miles east-southeast of Brownsville. By the time it hit Port Mansfield, it was a Cat 3. And it moved slowly west-northwest thru deep south Texas. However, areas that are to the right of a hurricane center are known to be in the quadrant of the system where tornadoes are spun up. And boy were they ever spun up with Allen! Sixteen of the storm’s 29 tornadoes occurred in Central Texas, including an F-2 which hit the Austin airport and caused $250 million of damage. We didn’t get much rain from Allen and thankfully there were no fatalities locally as a result of the tornadoes.
Hurricane Hyacinth (October 1960): another event where a Pacific system which hit Mexico moved northeast into Texas and combined with a cold front to drop torrential rains. Up to 10” fell locally and about 300 families lost their homes with damage estimates in the millions. Sadly, 11 people died in this event.
Hurricane Two (September 1921): while this storm made landfall far south near Tampico, Mexico, only as a Category One hurricane … the remnants of the system moved north into Texas and unleashed some rainfall totals of Biblical proportions. This was another case of a nocturnal core rain event happening in our area. Travis County had rainfall reports of 10-15” and over a 24-hour period in Thrall, they had 38.2” of rain! This event killed 215 Texans sadly.
Some of you may be wondering about notorious Texas storms like Celia in 1961 or Allison in 1983 or Rita in 2005 or Ike in 2008. Well, truth is that those systems never had much impact locally. We were fortunate (at least) in those events. We shall see what the 2022 Atlantic and Pacific tropical seasons have in store for us.
