Life‑Threatening Flash Flooding Hits Texas Hill Country as Heavy Rain Shifts Toward I‑35 Corridor

Overview

• The NWS Weather Prediction Center warned Wednesday that concentrated, slow‑moving bands of storms over the Texas Hill Country will produce dangerous, life‑threatening and locally catastrophic flash flooding.
• By midday the heavy‑rain focus expanded east and north with WPC and local offices identifying the populated I‑35 corridor between San Antonio and Waco as the primary afternoon flash‑flood threat.
• Repeating storms from the Middle Texas Coast into the Houston area and outflow pushed into North Texas created localized risks in the Houston metro and the Dallas–Fort Worth area where 2 to 4 inches of rain in short periods could flood streets and neighborhoods.
• Separate mesoscale heavy‑rain events may produce localized flash flooding in parts of Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma, Arizona and southwest Utah, and near the Montana‑Wyoming border where hourly rates up to about 2.5 inches are possible.
• Forecasters say the extreme rains result from very high precipitable water, a persistent low‑level jet and mesoscale vortices that favor backbuilding and training of cells, while the Storm Prediction Center notes only isolated severe wind or hail threats and expects severe watches to be unlikely.