The Central Texas region devastated by deadly floods last week was again under threat on Sunday, as slow-moving storms brought the risk of flash flooding.
Some flooding had already been reported in the northern parts of the Hill Country, Orlando Bermudez, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office for Austin and San Antonio, said early Sunday.
The Weather Prediction Center issued a “moderate” (level 3 out of 4) risk for flash flooding through early Monday morning across the region. The most rainfall was expected in the corridor between the Hill Country and the Dallas metro areas, forecasters said, where there was a 30 to 40 percent chance that more than five inches of rain would fall within 24 hours.
While the rainfall was not expected to be as extreme as the totals seen on July 4, which caused the flooding that killed at least 129 people, forecasters warned that the saturated ground from last week’s storms made the area highly vulnerable.
“The rainfall amounts of today is going to be quick for those soils to saturate and everything becomes runoff,” Mr. Bermudez said.
There were several flash flood warnings in effect across Central and west-central Texas on Sunday morning. The National Weather Service reported that the heaviest rain was in northern Llano and Burnet Counties, shifting southeast into the Hill Country and southern Edwards Plateau.
A flood warning was also in effect through Monday morning for the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas, around 12 miles from Kerrville, which was at the center of the deadly flooding on Fourth of July weekend. While the river was not expected to reach the catastrophic levels, forecasters urged the public to avoid driving through flooded roads and bridges.
Flood watches were issued through Sunday evening across the Hill Country, the southern Edwards Plateau and the I-35 corridor connecting Austin and San Antonio. The National Weather Service estimated that up to five million people fall within the flood watch area.
The renewed risk of flooding is being driven by a weather system high in the atmosphere, stalled between two high-pressure systems. It has remained parked over Texas, providing ideal conditions for thunderstorms to repeatedly develop. Another weak system in the area is adding to the instability, fueling the continued storm activity, especially on Sunday afternoon.
Forecasters expected the storm system to stretch from the southwest to the northeast through the day, increasing the likelihood of additional rounds of thunderstorms.
And the flooding risk was expected to linger, with more rain forecast into early next week.
“The rain is going to continue Sunday night into Monday,” Mr. Bermudez said. “Then the chances for rain start to decrease Monday into Tuesday, with a dry forecast midweek to late week.”
Nazaneen Ghaffar is a Times reporter on the Weather team.
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