TEXAS — Our first round of rain on Thursday came during the morning commute, and it’s some of the heaviest rain the state has seen in a while.
Spectrum News meteorologists say 1.6 inches of rain fell in the Dallas-Fort Worth area early Thursday morning, which is a new daily rainfall record. One vehicle stalled in Rockwall due to the flooding.
The Dallas-Fort Worth and the Austin area have not seen heavy rain in about 20 days. Laredo hasn’t seen rain in 44 days, and El Paso falls just behind at 37 days. For San Antonio residents, it’s been about a month since they’ve seen rain.
Spectrum News talked with state leaders on Wednesday ahead of the storm. They say because it’s been a while since most of the state has seen rain, it could increase the chances for flash flooding.
“We’ve been in a drought situation but we do have a large amount of water coming in so really letting people understand that our soils will react a little differently on the concrete and hardscape areas,” said Bryan Davis with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. “It’s going to run off and they might not have had a chance to think about where those flood waters are.”
Also this week, Kerville city leaders had a meeting with emergency officials ahead of the rain as the area is still reeling from the damages left behind from the Fourth of July floods.
Hill Country teams are preparing for showers but don’t expect nearly as much rain as they saw in July.
On Tuesday, Gov. Greg Abbott activated the state’s emergency response resources with the chance for flooding.
On heavy rain days, experts recommend slowing down and giving yourself plenty of space between you and the drivers ahead of you. If you haven’t hit the road yet, but plan to, make sure your lights and windshield wipers are working. And of course, “turn around, don’t drown.”