Severe storms to slam Texas with hail, flood threats

A series of big weather systems sweeping Texas this week mean gloomy days on the horizon through the weekend. With storms dousing major metros in rain for days, flooding will become an increasing risk heading toward Memorial Day, but severe storms could also hit Texas towns with hail or strong winds.

There remains a slight risk that any of these storms could become severe.

“Further surface low developments beneath the upper-level SW flow bring the Panhandles persistent rain chances every afternoon/evening until Saturday,” the National Weather Service Amarillo office warns. “[Conditions could] provide the area with a low-end severe threat for any of those days in that period.”

It is all tied to an arctic cold front, though, so temperatures are expected to remain cooler (in the mid-60s to 70s) through the week after several scorching days.

The risk to North Texas hit the hardest on Tuesday, as warnings of large hail and damaging winds, plus a minimal risk of a tornado, swept the area. For the rest of the week, forecasters say severe weather threats seem minimal under current models, but continued rainfall over a week is upping flood chances.

“The overall severe weather threat appears to be pretty low during this time, but the threat for efficient rainfall producing storms and associated flooding will increase by Thursday into the weekend,” the NWS Dallas-Fort Worth office reports.

For North Texas, it looks like a rainy week, through the weekend, and well into the start of the next workweek. A 90% chance of thunderstorms emerged Tuesday, and a 20% 5o 90% chance looms through at least Monday.

In South Central Texas, storm chances climbed Tuesday night, just as temperature gauges began their gradual descent over the coming days. But strong storm chances linger through Memorial Day, hovering in the 30% to 80% range.

The National Weather Service says a severe storm threat, including hail or strong winds, persists throughout the week. Though, it’s the threat of excessive rainfall and flooding that weighs heaviest on the San Antonio and South Central Texas forecast.

“Each round of rainfall will lead to a deeper moistening of soils and possibly more runoff late week as grounds saturate. The pattern may lead to widespread beneficial rain for most areas but areas that receive repeated rounds and higher totals will likely see increasing potential for flash flooding or river flooding,” the national forecaster predicts.