Tuesday saw Tropical Storm Harold moving inland over Texas with strong gusts and heavy rain, providing the drought-stricken state with much-needed moisture but also posing a threat of tornadoes and flash flooding.
The path of tropical storm Harold (Source: USA Today)
Tropical Storm Harold Landfalls and Moving Through Texas and Mexico
The National Hurricane Center reported that the storm, which made landfall on a barrier island off the Texas coast earlier in the day, was moving at a speed of roughly 21 mph over southern Texas and northern Mexico. It is the first tropical storm of the current hurricane season to hit the region. A couple of tornadoes are possible across south Texas through the afternoon, according to senior meteorologist Richard Pasch of the National Hurricane Center, who called Harold “Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine” before it became a tropical storm status early Tuesday.
According to AccuWeather, a foot of rain is possible in some small places. Lead hurricane forecaster at AccuWeather Dan Kottlowski said, “The exact track of the rain in Texas will depend on the organization of the system before pushing inland.” Tropical storm Harold, with sustained winds of 35 mph and a direction of west-northwest, made landfall on Padre Island earlier on Tuesday and was centered about 15 miles east of Laredo, Texas, as of 4 p.m. local time.
The majority of this rainfall will be helpful for the drought-stricken area, which is good news, according to weather service forecaster William Churchill. However excessive precipitation that occurs too quickly may result in sporadic, isolated flash flooding.
More than 12,000 power outages, largely on Padre Island and the Southside, occurred, according to AEP. A tropical storm warning was in effect for 150 miles southwest of Houston, from the mouth of the Rio Grande to Port O’Connor. A tropical storm Harold watch was in effect from Port O’Connor to Sargent, which is fewer than 100 miles northeast of Port O’Connor.
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18 More Storms are Expected Until November
According to the Corpus Christi National Weather Service, 3 to 5 inches of rain fell in the area on Tuesday. The storm was moving toward the Rio Grande Plains and the South Texas Brush Country by Tuesday afternoon, according to the meteorological service, and was starting to leave the Texas region known as the Coastal Bend, which curves along the Gulf Coast. By early afternoon, 1 to 2.5 inches of rain had already fallen in Brush Country. As the fourth named storm to form in just 39 hours, Harold shattered a long-standing record on Tuesday morning, according to Phil Klotzbach, a seasonal hurricane forecaster at Colorado State University. According to Klotzbach, it beat a record that had been set in 1893 and matched in 1980. Harold, which includes an unnamed storm in January, is the ninth recognized storm of the year.
This hurricane season’s ninth recognized Atlantic storm is Harold. There will be 18 named storms by the time the season ends in November, according to forecasters at Colorado State University. Tropical storm Harold is counted as the ninth official storm in the Atlantic season. Nine are anticipated to become hurricanes. Despite becoming the eighth named storm, Harold was later found to have been mistaken for another subtropical storm that occurred in January.
The majority of analysts believe that the 2023 hurricane season will be busier than average; on average, there are 14 named storms per year, and roughly seven of those become hurricanes. The Atlantic Ocean, where hurricanes frequently occur, has very warm ocean water, according to forecasts. The three busiest months for hurricane activity in the Atlantic, according to AccuWeather, are August, September, and October.
As tropical storm Harold moved west and northwest, the National Weather Service in Corpus Christi issued many tornado warnings in towns and counties along the Gulf of Mexico coast and inland until early in the afternoon. The major concerns as Tropical Storm Harold creeps inland, according to the weather service, have been tornadoes and flash flooding. Hail as small as a pea was also conceivable.
According to AccuWeather, Harold, which brought torrential rain and ferocious thunderstorms to sections of the Florida Peninsula this weekend and the Bahamas late last week, was a tropical rainfall. Up to 3 inches of rain fell in the Florida Keys, while 0.25 to 1 inch of rain fell in drought-stricken areas along the west coast of the Florida Peninsula.
The National Weather Service reported that Tropical Storm Franklin was “drifting slowly” early on Tuesday with little change in intensity. The storm, which had continuous gusts of 50 mph, was moving toward the island of Hispaniola, which the Dominican Republic and Haiti share, and was located about 250 miles south of the Dominican Republic. The weather office reported that a tropical storm warning was in effect for both countries’ southern coasts and that up to a foot of rain might fall in certain places by Wednesday. Puerto Rico might receive up to 6 inches in some areas.
