Weather Spectrum

The rainfall started when it was expected to, but ended earlier as a fast-moving squall line developed near Corpus Christi and tracked right up the coastline eventually reaching Galveston by about 2:35am. Police in Galveston reported power poles down across the Island starting in Jamaica beach to Downtown. The Galveston airport reported a max wind gust of 38 KTS or 44 MPH. That's under severe criteria by 14 mph. Nevertheless it seems there were a few microbursts along the path given the reports of downed power poles. A total of just under an inch of rain was recorded at the airport in Galveston.

South Houston also had it's fair share of nasty weather with wind gusts to near 40 MPH and rainfall of about 0.75 inches.

Picture below shows rainfall estimates for this weather event. Most of the heaviest rainfall remained offshore.

Click the link below to see a quick video of the squall line as it moved through.
5.11.12 HGX Radar.swf <--Radar loop of last nights squall line/bow echo.

Going forward today, we're not completely out of the woods as far as heavy rainfall threat, but the good news is that the squall line really zapped much of the instability out of the atmosphere and it will take some time and quite a bit of sunshine to reignite storms by this afternoon. It looks like the storms will begin very scattered in nature. Severe threat is minimized, but there will be a slight chance for damaging winds and hail with a few storms that form. The coastal areas will be under fire again and areas north of Houston can expect only a few passing thunderstorms or rain showers.

As for rainfall, the ground is soaking up last night's rainfall and as long as the rainfall rates remain below 2-2.5 inches per hour, the risk for flooding is much less than it was yesterday.

The sun will be shining for most of the day and it will be very comfortable until this afternoon when the humidity returns with daytime heating.

You can see the tale-tell comma shape to the low pressure. You can also see some new development towards north central Texas. We shall see what this will mean for us by this evening.

Mother's Day is shaping up to be a top 10 day as the weather is pushing through quicker than previously thought.
Have a great weekend!!