Will Alex Rain on Our Parade?

Keep your eyes on the Gulf, people.  Tropical Storm Alex has passed over the Yucatan Peninsula and there is a very strong possibility that Texas will get hit.  As can be seen from the image from the National Hurricane Center, the cone of uncertainty has the storm making landfall anywhere from Tampico, Mexico to Rockport, TX.

I am a weather nut so I have been watching the projections from the Weather Channel and our local News 8 Austin. What I have seen today shows computer models having Alex coming in around Brownsville and then cutting up into an area from west Texas to ease of Austin.  If it follows a path that leads it to our west, our lakes could see significant flooding.

Lake Buchanan is below where it normally is this time of year, but Lake Travis is a few feet above normal.  Given the uncertainty of the path of Alex, this may not be a good thing.  Anyone who has lived in the Austin area for any number of years has seen how quickly Lake Travis can rise.  Any significant tropical system heading through the Hill Country has the potential to drop from just a few inches to a foot of rain.

I am hearing some forecasters suggest that because Alex is a relatively slow moving storm that it has the potential of reaching Category 3 status.  It also looks like it may continue to be a very large system, so even if it heads to our southwest we could see rain bands move through and drop heavy amounts of rain in isolated.

When Alex will make landfall is almost as important as where.  Right now it looks like it could put rain in our area next weekend and that is the July 4th weekend.  Will Alex rain on our parades and fireworks shows?

Regardless of where Alex goes, we are likely to see an increase in cloud cover and that will give us a break from the heat.  The Austin Lake Travis weather station is reporting 103.5 degrees today at 3:30 PM.

If you have lake property that is within any area lake floodplains, stay tuned to the news.  If you have a lot of outdoor furniture and toys, get ready to move it inside in case we get a lot of wind. 

Author Bio:

Sam Chapman is a Lake Travis real estate agent who is also fascinated by the weather.